Employee Empowerment in Banking Sector: Comparison BetweenPrivate and Public Banks Operating in Pakistan

This study is about a comparison of employee empowerment between public sector and private sector banks operating in Pakistan. The study attempted and addressed three research questions: what the degree of employee empowerment in the private sector banks is; what the degree of employee empowerment in public sector banks is; and whether employees in the private sector banks have more empowerment in terms of power, knowledge, information and rewards compared with the empowerment of employees in the public sector banks. In relation to these research questions four hypotheses were formulated and tested. The study was based on a questionnaire survey covering a sample of 100 employees (50 from the public sector and 50 from the private sector banks) from ten banking institutions (5 public and 5 private sector banks). The results show that private sector banks employees are given significantly more power in making decision, more opportunities for acquiring and utilizing knowledge to understand and contribute to organization performance; more information regarding to organization performance and activities; and more rewards based on the organizational performance than the public sector banks. The results may be of assistance to enhance employee empowerment especially in the public sector banks.