Linking leadership empowerment behaviour to employee attitudes and behavioural intentions
Dewettinck, Koen van Ameijde, Maaike
Dewettinck, Koen
van Ameijde, Maaike
Citations
Altmetric:
Publication Type
Journal article with impact factor
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2011-04-12
Journal
Personnel Review
Book
Publication Volume
40
Publication Issue
3
Publication Begin page
284
Publication End page
305
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour (LEB), employee psychological empowerment and employee attitudes (affective commitment and job satisfaction) and behavioural intentions (intention to stay). Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were simultaneously tested on a sample of 380 frontline service employees, using structural equation modeling. Findings The paper found a direct relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and job satisfaction and affective commitment. Psychological empowerment partially mediates these relationships. Employee attitudes were also shown to be related to intention to stay. Research limitations/implications This study provides validation of the LEB construct in an individualized working context and suggests that psychological empowerment is a relevant construct to link LEB to employee attitudes and behavioural intentions. The cross‐sectional nature of this study restricts the clear pinpointing of temporal causal relationships within the empowerment process. Furthermore, common method bias might have inflated correlations between constructs. Practical implications The LEB dimensions provide organizations with concrete behaviour that leaders should emphasize in order to foster employee commitment, satisfaction and loyalty to the company. Originality/value This is the first paper that studies the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and the multi‐dimensional conceptualization of psychological empowerment. It aims to gain further insights into the relationship between structural and psychological perspectives on empowerment and clarifies how these constructs relate to employee attitudes and behavioural intentions.
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour