* Corresponding author. E-mail address: haidershah24@gmail.com (S. A. Haider) © 2021 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2020.10.022 Management Science Letters 11 (2021) 813–822 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl Impact of employee empowerment on organizational commitment through job satisfaction in four and five stars hotel industry Nasser Saad AlKahtani a , Shahid Iqbal b , Mariam Sohail c , Faisal Sheraz d , Sarwat Jahan e , Bilal Anwar f and Syed Arslan Haider g* a Lecturer, Institute of Business Administration, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan b Assistant Professor, Management Studies Department, Bahria University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan c PhD Scholar, Department of Management, Superior University, Lahore Campus, Pakistan d Lecturer, Faculty of Management Sciences, Abasyn University, Peshawar Campus, Pakistan e PhD Scholar, Department of Business and Accountancy, Lincoln University College (LUC), Main campus, Wisma Lincoln, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Darul Ehsan, Malaysia f Assistant Professor Department of Business Administration, University of Sahiwal, Sahiwal, Pakistan g PhD Scholar, Department of Management, Sunway University Business School (SUBS), Sunway University, No 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: September 20, 2020 Received in revised format: October 10 2020 Accepted: October 16, 2020 Available online: October 16, 2020 The purpose of this study is to empirically test the impact of employee empowerment on organiza- tional commitment through the mediating role of job satisfaction. The non-probability random sam- pling technique and time lag was used to collect data from 307 employees working at four and five Stars Hotels in two cities Rawalpindi, Islamabad of Pakistan. Smart Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (Smart PLS SEM v.3.2.8) was used to test the hypotheses. The result indicates that employee empowerment has a significant and positive impact on organizational commitment. Also, job satisfaction is considered as a potential mediator between employee empowerment and organizational commitment. Furthermore, to support the results current study used the social ex- change theory. Finally, some theoretical and practical contributions to employee empowerment and organizational commitment literature, and research limitations and future directions are presented. © 2021 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada Keywords: Employee Empowerment Job Satisfaction Organizational Commitment Partial least square (PLS) 1. Introduction Employees are the most important assets of an organization. Therefore, organizations put their significant efforts to attract, retain and maintain the talented and committed employees (Aguiar-Quintana et al., 2020; Anggreyani et al., 2020; Ibrahim 2020). Employee empowerment (EE) is identified as the necessary source of development of the social exchange theory (SET) and viewed as the essential subject in practical ground (Ko & Hur, 2014). EE is now becoming a trend in an industry area which influences the employee behavior on a job and in organization (Francis & Alagas, 2020). Abuhashesh et al. (2019) and SELVI et al. (2020) explained that EE is a procedure to give authority, power, obligation, resources, and liberty to the workers of the company for taking decisions and solving job tasks. Also, provide control to employees and allows distribution of responsibilities and control at every level. Empowerment is basic and essential feature for successful accomplishment, effi- ciency, and development in Hotel industry (Simsek, 2020; Saban et al., 2020). It is primarily related with development of trust, motivation, involvement in making decisions and eliminating any borders between top management and an employee (Andika & Darmanto, 2020). Furthermore, empowerment is method of providing an employee the power of making decisions and is often associated with the allocation of responsibilities from leaders to their employees (Al Halbusi et al., 2017). Diah