The Role of In-service Virtual Training Courses in Job Empowerment of Employees of Fars province Agri-Jihad Organization

Today, a significant and continuous success of an organization relies heavily on human capital in the form of employees, which is possible through the empowerment of employees' jobs. Accordingly, the purpose of this survey study was to investigate the role of in-service virtual training courses in job empowerment of employees of the Fars province Agri-Jihad Organization. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the 495staff of Building No. 1 of the Agri-Jihad Organization of Fars province, of which 96 were selected by simple random sampling method. The data gathering tool included a questionnaire on psychological empowerment of  Spreitzer and Mishra, and a researcher-made questionnaire for assessing the quality of in-service virtual education. Its face validity confirmed by a number of experts and its reliability calculated by calculating the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for different measures (ranged between 0.74 and 0.96). The results of the evaluation of the quality of in-service virtual training showed that the quality of these trainings is relatively favorable from the staffs’ viewpoint. The results of the comparison of the job empowerment dimensions before and after participation in these courses showed that the sense of competence, autonomy and influence were significantly increased after the participation in the courses. The correlation matrix results indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between the quality of in-service training and job empowerment of employees. Also, the results of regression analysis showed that quality of in-service training was the most important predictor of employee empowerment.