An exploration of the influence of employee empowerment on organisational commitment in the pharmaceutical regulatory affairs environment

Abstract

As healthcare organisations continually encounter difficulty in remaining adaptable and competitive in delivering exceptional healthcare in the midst of intense competition, shifting regulatory landscape, and a shortage of essential service providers, it is critical that healthcare organisations adopt strategies that will retain key talent who are committed to the organisation, especially scarce healthcare professionals such as Regulatory Affairs (RA) Pharmacists in the pharmaceutical organisations. By examining how both structural and psychological empowerment affects employee commitment to the organisation, this research sought to enhance the understanding of the various empowerment factors that influence the commitment of RA pharmacists in the pharmaceutical industry and to tackle the issue of turnover among these professionals. The research employed an exploratory qualitative approach to acquire a more profound understanding and insight of the structural and psychological empowerment factors that influence the organisational commitment of regulatory affairs pharmacists. A total of sixteen semi-structured interviews were used to gather data with RA Pharmacists occupying various roles in pharmaceutical organisations to gain further insights. The research resulted in the identification of additional parameters that pharmaceutical organisations could utilise to enhance the structural and psychological empowerment of RA pharmacists, which would contribute to organisational commitment and the ultimate achievement of organisational goals.