Feedback helps employees to evaluate and improve their performance, but there have been relatively few empirical investigations into how leaders can encourage employees to seek feedback. To fill this gap we examined the relationship among delegation, psychological empowerment, and feedback-seeking behavior. We hypothesized that delegation promotes feedback-seeking behavior by psychologically empowering subordinates. In addition, power distance moderates the relationship between delegation and feedback-seeking behavior. Analysis of data from a sample of 248 full-time employees of a hotel group in northern China indicated that delegation predicts subordinates’ feedback seeking for individuals with moderate and high power distance orientation, but not for those with low power distance orientation. The mediation hypothesis was also supported.
In this study, we examined the relationships between empowering leadership employee outcomes (creativity and job performance) and the mediating (voice behaviour and taking charge) and moderating (reward omission) variables in these relationships. Our theoretical model was tested using the data collected from 197 full‐time employees and 32 supervisors. Analyses of the multisource data indicated that empowering leadership is linked to subordinates' job performance and creativity through subordinates' taking charge and voice behaviour as intermediate variables. However, the indirect relationship exists only when leaders display high levels of reward omission. Our research addressed a specific gap in understanding the boundary conditions for empowering leadership to be effective. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications of our findings as well as future research directions.
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