The power of empowering leadership: allowing and encouraging followers to take charge of their own jobs

Abstract

Based on resources theories, the present study examines a serial mediation model, in which empowering leadership predicts employee job crafting through psychological capital (PsyCap) and trust in leader, and job crafting subsequently predicts three different work behaviors: psychological withdrawal, physical withdrawal, and positive work behavior. Data were collected from US employees at four separate points with one-month intervals. Structural equation modeling including testing alternative models was utilized to assess the mediation model. The results generally supported the hypothesized model, suggesting that empowering leadership elicited greater personal and job resources in the form of PsyCap and leader trust, which in turn, led to job crafting behaviors. Subsequently, job crafting made employees engage in more positive work behaviors, as well as fewer psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors. Significant direct effects of empowering leadership and PsyCap on one outcome, psychological withdrawal, were found in some analyses, however. Overall, the findings of the present study underline the importance of personal and job resources for favorable work behaviors by testing the mediating processes.

Keywords:

• empowering leadership
• psychological capital
• trust in leader
• job crafting
• withdrawal behavior

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Minseo Kim

Minseo Kim is a research Fellow in the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University, Australia. Her research interests include occupational stress, leadership, motivation, job crafting, and employee well-being.

Terry A. Beehr

Terry A. Beehr is a Professor of Psychology and member of the I/O Psychology faculty at Central Michigan University. His research interests include occupational stress, leadership, motivation, careers, and retirement.