The Antecedents And Influences Of Empowering Leadership Behavior

Empowering leadership behavior is a classic topic in the research field of organizational behavior.In recent years,under the background of VUCAera,the work forms within organizations have undergone profound changes,with online working and telecommuting becoming common working situations.In this context,the empowering leadership behavior has once again become the focus of practice and academia.Although great progress has been made in the research of empowering leadership behavior,most of the existing studies focus on the surface phenomena such as leadership traits and organizational scenarios,and cannot correctly grasp the root causes of the generation of empowering leadership behavior.The research on the role of empowering leadership behavior on individuals also mainly discusses its impact on subordinates,but less discusses its impact on leaders themselves.Leaders and subordinates are the main actors in the workplace,and they are related to each other and achieve each other.There is no doubt that empowering leadership behavior is a process that affects both leaders and subordinates.Based on this,this paper conducts in-depth research on the antecedents of empowering leadership behavior and its effects on leaders themselves and their subordinates,which not only enriches the relevant research on empowering leadership behavior,but also provides practical guidance for managers and organizations.This paper conducts three studies on the basis of a large number of literatures.Study 1 explores the antecedents of empowering leadership behavior,and study 2 and Study 3 respectively explore the effects of empowering leadership behavior on leaders and their subordinates.In study 1,the deep-seated reasons for the occurrence of empowering leadership behavior are discussed,and the antecedents of the influence of empowering leadership behavior are tested in combination with quantitative research.In study 2,a questionnaire was used to conduct an empirical investigation and research software such as SPSS and Mplus was comprehensively used to analyze the influence on leaders themselves mechanism.In study 3,situational experiment method is used to design situational experiment for subordinates,and the causal relationship between empowering leadership behavior and subordinate proactive behavior is simply discussed.Using the questionnaire survey method,one-to-one matching samples of leaders and subordinates were collected at three points to explore the influence of empowering leadership behavior on subordinates.The three sub-studies are as follows:Drawing on social cognitive theory,Study 1 explores the antecedents of empowering leadership behavior from the perspective of family of origin.In study 1,electronic questionnaires were sent to entrepreneur leaders at two time points to collect data on parental emotional warmth,performance pressure,prosocial motivation,and empowering leadership behavior.A total of 222 questionnaires were collected.By empirical analysis,the results showed that parent emotional warmth positively related to leader prosocial motivation.Performance pressure moderates the influence of prosocial motivation on empowering leadership behavior,such as prosocial motivation positively related to empowering leadership behavior when performance pressure is low.Performance pressure moderates the indirect effect of parent emotional warmth on empowering leadership behavior through prosocial motivation,such as the indirect effect is positive when performance pressure is low.Drawing on conservation of recourse theory,Study 2 explores the influence of empowering leadership behavior on themselves.A total of 190 questionnaires were collected from entrepreneur leaders.The results show that leader recovery mediates the influence of empowering leadership behavior on leader’s psychological well-being.Event disruption moderates the influence of empowering leadership behavior on leader recovery,such as empowering leadership behavior is positively related to leader recovery when event disruption is low.Event disruption moderates the indirect effect empowering leadership behavior on leader’s psychological well-being through leader recovery,such as the indirect effect is positive when event disruption is low.Drawing on person-environment fit theory,Study 3 explores the influence of empowering leadership behavior on subordinates.In study 3,the situational experiment method is used to design situational experiments for subordinates,and the causal relationship beteewn empowering leadership behavior and subordinate proactive behavior is briefly discussed.Then 224 leader-subordinate matching samples were collected by the questionnaire survey method at three time points.The results show that subordinate ability moderates the influence of empowering leadership behavior on subordinate perceived insider status,such as empowering leadership behavior positively related to subordinate perceived insider status when subordinate ability is high.Subordinate perceived insider status positively related to subordinate proactive behavior.Subordinate ability moderates the indirect effect of empowering leadership behavior on employee proactive behavior through subordinate perceived insider status,such as the indirect effect is positive when subordinate ability is high.In general,this paper not only discusses the influencing factors of the empowering leadership behavior,but also discusses the influence of the empowering leadership behavior on different subjects from two different paths of leaders and subordinates.The theoretical contributions are as follows.The antecedents of empowering leadership behavior are found from the perspective of family of origin.The effects of empowering leadership behavior on leaders’ own work status and subordinates’ active behaviors are explored,which enriches the research on the path of empowering leadership behavior.The practical implications include as follows.First of all,organizations should recognize the profound and long-term impact of parenting styles on leadership behaviors in the family of origin,which can be used to manage and predict empowering leadership behavior in organizations and optimize the allocation of leadership positions;Secondly,the organization should help leaders to relieve pressure and enhance their work happiness;Finally,leaders should selectively delegate according to the ability of subordinates,and not all subordinates will have a positive impact on empowering leadership behavior.