Empowering leadership and job performance: mediating role of psychological empowerment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to check the effects of empowering leadership on job performance of employees through the mediation of psychological empowerment. Design/methodology/approach Primary data were gathered from 418 Indian banking employees. Statistical techniques like factor analysis, multiple regressions and bootstrapping via PROCESS were used to analyze the data. Findings Initially, the results of multiple regression analysis revealed that empowering leadership behaviors have positive influence on psychological empowerment and job performance of subordinates. Further, bootstrap analysis revealed that the individual dimensions of psychological empowerment serially mediate the effects of empowering leadership behaviors on subordinates’ job performance. Research limitations/implications The study indicates that the empowering leadership style is not applicable to Western culture only, but it is also very effective in high power distance cultures like of India. The major limitation of the study is that the data have been gathered from a single source. This may lead to common method variance. Practical implications In banking context, empowering leadership can improve the performance of employees by means of psychological empowerment. Training should be provided to organizational leaders in banks with special focus on facilitating the empowering behaviors among them. Originality/value The research studies on measuring the effects of empowering leadership on job performance through mediation of psychological empowerment are very limited.

Sustainable Workplace: The Moderating Role of Office Design on the Relationship between Psychological Empowerment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Uzbekistan

“…Several studies have examined the impact of psychological empowerment (i.e., intrinsic motivation) on work satisfaction [23,24], organizational commitment [25,26] and performance [27,28]. Moreover, recent studies have confirmed that the higher the level of employees' psychological empowerment, the more motivated employees are to perform well and demonstrate more at work [29][30][31].…”

Are Bank Employees Satisfied with Perceived Leadership and Empowerment?

“…As a mediating variable, Employee Empowerment was also used in a study that affected the job satisfaction of employees. Similarly, empowerment has also been used as a mediating variable in several other studies (Carless, 2004;Kundu et al, 2019;Qing et al, 2019). For example, in a study conducted previously, psychological empowerment was found as a mediating variable in the relationship between leadership and employee's attitude towards the job , and it has also been taken as a mediating variable in the relationship between the independent variable i.e.…”

“…If one observes keenly, the employees of a bank are mostly engaged in public dealing and relationship management. If these employees are happy and satisfied with their job, they will keep the customers satisfied otherwise, their attitudes will reflect in their demeanor towards the customers (Kundu, Kumar & Gahlawat, 2019). Traditionally, banks tend to invest in training their employees because well-trained and skilled employees are one of the main priorities of the banking system.…”

“…However, this study has specifically considered the perceived leadership in order to predict the employees' job satisfaction, based on the theoretical ground of the empowerment theory. The empowerment theory suggests that leaders have a capacity to exert control, and influence organizational decisions that affect employee job satisfaction (Kundu et al, 2019;Qing, Asif, Hussain & Jameel, 2019;Rajotte, 1996). When employees have a good interpersonal relationship with their managers/leaders, they become more satisfied with their jobs.…”

Competency and Work Satisfaction, and Its Implications on Employee Performance National Land Agency of the Republic Of Indonesia

“…Many studies have supported the argument that psychological empowerment is related to performance and job satisfaction [23][24] [25] The effects of perceived authentic leadership and core self-evaluations on organizational citizenship behavior: The role of psychological empowerment as a partial mediator. The research conducted by research [26] [27][28] [29] in particular reported that empowerment has a positive and significant influence on employee performance through employee job satisfaction so that it can be stated that empowerment encourages employees to be more active and triggers their creativity. Employees who feel empowered then will have satisfaction in their job.…”