Abstract: This study is a part of more in-depth research investigating the employee performance-enhancing factors and the role of empowerment during the Covid-19 pandemic in selected MSME food manufacturing industries in Kerala. This research focuses on introducing and testing a model to show the relationship between employee empowerment and employee performance. A conceptual framework was developed to identify the areas in which a literature review was performed. The conceptual framework is on employee empowerment, employee satisfaction, and employee commitment deciding the effectiveness and impact on employee performance. In the present research, employee performance is the key dependent variable. From 110 employees, the response was collected via a survey-based structured questionnaire. Collected responses were analyzed, and formulated hypotheses were tested using standard statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, one-sample t-test, correlation coefficient. The responses analyzed and hypotheses testing have resulted in a particular phenomenon.

Keywords: employee empowerment, employee commitment, employee performance.

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2022.9148