Multi-level investigation of empowering leadership, leader-member exchange, and subordinate empowerment

Won Jun Kwak, Purdue University

Abstract

Although empowering leadership was found to be positively related to subordinate empowerment, little research has been conducted to investigate additional influence processes through which empowering leaders enhance subordinates' empowerment level. To fill this research gap, the present study examined the multi-level empowering leadership processes which explain the individual-, group-, and cross-level effects of empowering leadership on subordinate individual and collective empowerment. The hypothesized, multi-level mediation and moderation relationships were examined with 132 employees working in 26 work groups in a multi-national chemical company. Two paper-based surveys were distributed for collecting data over two time points. The results revealed that, at the individual level, leader-member exchange (LMX) was, as expected, a partial mediator between empowering leadership and subordinate psychological empowerment. At the group level, it was found that subordinates' team empowerment was affected via distributive justice climate by the extent to which a leader differentially empower subordinates in a work group (differentiated empowering leadership) and the extent to which LMX is differentiated (LMX differentiation). Specifically, differentiated empowering leadership was found to positively influence LMX differentiation which had negative impact on subsequent distributive justice climate which, in turn, positively affected team empowerment. In addition, although the expected moderating role of group power distance on the relationship between LMX differentiation and distributive justice climate was not found, the predicted moderating role of subordinate generalized self-efficacy was found such that it attenuated the effects of empowering leadership on subordinate psychological empowerment. In the post hoc data analyses, generalized self-efficacy weakened the effects of empowering leadership on LMX; LMX was found to mediate the interactive effects of generalized self-efficacy and empowering leadership on subordinate psychological empowerment. Finally, unexpectedly, two group-level constructs of differentiated empowering leadership and LMX differentiation were not found to moderate the individual-level empowering leadership-LMX relationship and the individual-level LMX-psychological empowerment relationship, respectively. Given these findings, this study suggests that a leader who wants to empower subordinates may need to build a good work relationship with each individual subordinate and may consider not so differentially developing such good work relationships with several subordinates in a work group. It is also suggested that a leader who attempts to empower subordinates may need to understand the nature of subordinate individual attributes and to suitably adjust his or her own behaviors.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Jackson, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Occupational psychology|Organizational behavior

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