Zahra seifi - Department of Physical Education, Mobarake Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mobarake, Iran
Mina Mostahfezian - Department of Physical Education and sport science, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

Background: Aim of the present study was to explore how information technology (IT) and organizational structure are related to employee empowerment in the General Department of Sports and Youth in Bushehr Province. Materials and Methods: The population under study included all 97 staffs working in the General Department of Sports and Youth in Bushehr Province in 2015 who were selected as the respondents in the research sample. Fathi’s (2010) Standard IT Questionnaire, Robbins’ (1987) Organizational Structure Questionnaire and Spreitzer’s (1995) Standard Employee Empowerment Questionnaire were used as instruments to collect the data. The reliability coefficients for these three questionnaires were 0.83, 0.81, and 0.82, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, multiple regressions) were used to analyze the data. Results and Discussions The results showed that there is a significant positive correlation between IT and employee empowerment. In addition, a positive significant correlation was found between organizational structure and employee empowerment and also between IT and employee empowerment with respect to organizational structure as the control variable. Conclusion: The results of regression analysis showed that of IT components, hardware and software use and of the components of organizational structure only integration and focus were significant predictors of employee empowerment

Employee empowerment, information technology, organizational structure