Abstract

Empowering leadership has shown to be related to a variety of positive organizational outcomes, as well as positive individual outcomes for employees. However, some evidence suggests that there is also a burdening side to empowering leadership, whereby the increased autonomy and responsibility provided to employees can in fact be detrimental to firm and employee performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of both enabling and burdening empowering leadership on employee motivation, extra-role behaviors, and well-being, while taking into account individual differences such as employee general self-efficacy and proactive personality. Drawing on the self-determination theory and social cognitive theory, this study proposes that empowering leadership will lead to positive behaviors, and reduced emotional exhaustion and turnover intention, through autonomous motivation, and that personality traits in subordinates will moderate these relationships. The data was collected using a short online questionnaire using employees (n = 267) from various firms across North America. Empowering leadership was positively related to autonomous motivation, and was also positively related to extra-role behavior, and negatively related to emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Results showed support for the moderating effects of self-efficacy and proactive personality on extra-role behavior, emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The findings of this study are relevant for the workforce, as leaders who are more aware of the effects of their leadership style will be better able to adjust their behavior accordingly in order to ensure their employees are performing at an optimal level, which will result in a more motivated and engaged workforce, and ultimately increased overall firm effectiveness