Organization-Based Self-Esteem and Meaningful Work Mediate Effects of Empowering Leadership on Employee Behaviors and Well-Being

Abstract

Based on the conservation of resources theory and intrinsic motivation principles, this study examined the effects of empowering leadership on employees’ positive and negative behaviors and well-being through two mediators, organization-based self-esteem, and meaningful work, over an 8-week period. With 347 full-time employees, results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that empowering leadership was positively associated with organization-based self-esteem and meaningful work. Organization-based self-esteem led to greater organizational citizenship behaviors and fewer deviant behaviors. Perceptions of meaningful work resulted in lower levels of emotional exhaustion and higher levels of life satisfaction. Together, these findings highlight the important roles of the two psychological states explaining why empowering leadership contributes to employees’ favorable work behaviors and psychological well-being.

Keywords

empowering leadership organization-based self-esteem meaningful work work behavior psychological well-being

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ahearne

Mathieu

Rapp

(2005). To empower or not to empower your sales force? An empirical examination of the influence of leadership empowerment behavior on customer satisfaction and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 945-955.

Allan

B. A.

Autin

K. L.

Duffy

R. D.

(2016). Self-determination and meaningful work: Exploring socioeconomic constraints. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1-9.

Amundsen

Martinsen

Ø. L.

(2014). Empowering leadership: Construct clarification, conceptualization, and validation of a new scale. Leadership Quarterly, 25, 487-511.

Amundsen

Martinsen

Ø. L.

(2015). Linking empowering leadership to job satisfaction, work effort, and creativity: The role of self-leadership and psychological empowerment. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 22, 304-323.

Arnold

J. A.

Arad

Rhoades

J. A.

Drasgow

(2000). The empowering leadership questionnaire: The construction and validation of a new scale for measuring leader behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 249-269.

Audenaert

Vanderstraeten

Buyens

(2017). When affective well-being is empowered: The joint role of leader-member exchange and the employment relationship. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28, 2208-2227.

Behrend

T. S.

Sharek

D. J.

Meade

A. W.

Wiebe

E. N.

(2011). The viability of crowdsourcing for survey research. Behavior Research Methods, 43, 800-813.

Bennett

R. J.

Robinson

S. L.

(2000). Development of a measure of workplace deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 349-360.

Bennett

R. J.

Robinson

S. L.

(2003). The past, present, and future of workplace deviance research. In Greenberg

(Eds.), Organizational behavior: The state of the science (pp. 247-281). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

10.

Blustein

D. L.

(2008). The role of work in psychological health and well-being: A conceptual, historical, and public policy perspective. American Psychologist, 63, 228-240.

11.

Bowling

N. A.

Eschleman

K. J.

Wang

Kirkendall

Alarcon

(2010). A meta-analysis of the predictors and consequences of organization-based self-esteem. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83, 601-626.

12.

Buhrmester

Kwang

Gosling

S. D.

(2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3-5.

13.

Casler

Bickel

Hackett

(2013). Separate but equal? A comparison of participants and data gathered via Amazon’s MTurk, social media, and face-to-face behavioral testing. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2156-2160.

14.

Chan

S. C.

Huang

Snape

Lam

C. K.

(2013). The Janus face of paternalistic leaders: Authoritarianism, benevolence, subordinates’ organization-based self-esteem, and performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34, 108-128.

15.

Cheong

Spain

S. M.

Yammarino

F. J.

Yun

(2016). Two faces of empowering leadership: Enabling and burdening. Leadership Quarterly, 27, 602-616.

16.

Cheung

J. H.

Burns

D. K.

Sinclair

R. R.

Sliter

(2017). Amazon Mechanical Turk in organizational psychology: An evaluation and practical recommendations. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32, 347-361.

17.

Cordery

J. L.

Morrison

Wright

B. M.

Wall

T. D.

(2010). The impact of autonomy and task uncertainty on team performance: A longitudinal field study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31, 240-258.

18.

Crawford

E. R.

LePine

Rich

B. L.

(2010). Linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 834-848.

19.

Deci

E. L.

Ryan

R. M.

(2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.

20.

DeSimone

J. A.

Harms

P. D.

DeSimone

A. J.

(2015). Best practice recommendations for data screening. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36, 171-181.

21.

Dewettinck

van Ameijde

(2011). Linking leadership empowerment behavior to employee attitudes and behavioral intentions: Testing the mediating role of psychological empowerment. Personnel Review, 40, 284-305.

22.

Diener

Emmons

R. A.

Larsen

R. J.

Griffin

(1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.

23.

Diener

Fujita

(1995). Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well-being: A nomothetic and idiographic approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 926-935.

24.

Duffy

R. D.

Dik

B. J.

Steger

M. S.

(2011). Calling and work related outcomes: Career commitment as a mediator. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78, 210-218.

25.

Ferris

D. L.

Brown

D. J.

Heller

(2009). Organizational supports and organizational deviance: The mediating role of organization-based self-esteem. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108, 279-286.

26.

Gardner

D. G.

Pierce

J. L.

(2016). Organization-based self-esteem: Making a difference at work. In Duening

(Ed.), Leading the positive organization: Actions, tools, and processes (pp. 27-48). New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

27.

Goodman

J. K.

Cryder

C. E.

Cheema

(2013). Data collection in a flat world: The strengths and weaknesses of Mechanical Turk samples. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 26, 213-224.

28.

Grant

A. M.

(2007). Relational job design and the motivation to make a prosocial difference. Academy of Management Review, 32, 393-417.

29.

Greenhaus

J. H.

Powell

G. N.

(2006). When work and family are allies: A theory of work-family enrichment. Academy of Management Review, 31, 72-92.

30.

Hackman

J. R.

Oldham

G. R.

(1980). Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

31.

Harris

K. J.

Kacmar

K. M.

Zivnuska

(2007). An investigation of abusive supervision as a predictor of performance and the meaning of work as a moderator of the relationship. Leadership Quarterly, 18, 252-263.

32.

Hayes

A. F.

(2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

33.

Hays

R. D.

Hayashi

Stewart

A. L.

(1989). A five-item measure of socially desirable response set. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 49, 629-636.

34.

Hobfoll

S. E.

(1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513-524.

35.

Hobfoll

S. E.

(2001). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing conservation of resources theory. Applied Psychology, 50, 337-421.

36.

Jöreskog

K. G.

Sörbom

(2006). LISREL 8.8 [Computer software]. Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.

37.

Judge

T. A.

Watanabe

(1994). Individual differences in the nature of the relationship between job and life satisfaction. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 67, 101-107.

38.

Kahn

W. A.

(2007). Meaningful connections: Positive relationships and attachments at work. In Dutton

J. E.

Ragins

B. R.

(Eds.), Exploring positive relationships at work: Building a theoretical and research foundation (pp. 189-206). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

39.

Kees

Berry

Burton

Sheehan

(2017). An analysis of data quality: Professional panels, student subject pools, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Journal of Advertising, 46, 141-155.

40.

Kim

Beehr

T. A.

(2017a). Can empowering leaders affect subordinates’ well-being and careers because they encourage subordinates’ job crafting behaviors? Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1548051817727702

41.

Kim

Beehr

T. A.

(2017b). Directing our own careers, but getting help from empowering leaders. Career Development International, 22, 300-317.

42.

Kim

Beehr

T. A.

(2017c). Self-efficacy and psychological ownership mediate the effects of empowering leadership on both good and bad employee behaviors. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24, 466-478.

43.

Kim

Beehr

T. A.

Prewett

M. S.

(2018). Employee responses to empowering leadership: A meta-analysis. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1548051817750538

44.

Konczak

L. J.

Stelly

D. J.

Trusty

M. L.

(2000). Defining and measuring empowering leader behaviors: Development of an upward feedback instrument. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60, 301-313.

45.

Marstand

A. F.

Martin

Epitropaki

(2017). Complementary person-supervisor fit: An investigation of supplies-values (SV) fit, leader-member exchange (LMX) and work outcomes. Leadership Quarterly, 28, 418-437.

46.

Martin

S. L.

Liao

Campbell

E. M.

(2013). Directive versus empowering leadership: A field experiment comparing impacts on task proficiency and proactivity. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 1372-1395.

47.

Maslach

Schaufeli

W. B.

Leiter

M. P.

(2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397-422.

48.

Mason

Suri

(2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 1-23.

49.

Maynard

M. T.

Gilson

L. L.

Mathieu

J. E.

(2012). Empowerment—fad or fab? A multilevel review of the past two decades of research. Journal of Management, 38, 1231-1281.

50.

Maynard

M. T.

Luciano

M. M.

D’Innocenzo

Mathieu

J. E.

Dean

M. D.

(2014). Modeling time-lagged reciprocal psychological empowerment–performance relationships. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99, 1244-1253.

51.

McAllister

D. J.

Bigley

G. A.

(2002). Work context and the definition of self: How organizational care influences organization-based self-esteem. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 894-904.

52.

McDowell

(2010). Measures of self-perceived well-being. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 69, 69-79.

53.

Myers

D. G.

Diener

(1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6, 10-19.

54.

Naus

van Iterson

Roe

R. A.

(2007). Value incongruence, job autonomy, and organization-based self-esteem: A self-based perspective on organizational cynicism. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16, 195-219.

55.

Peer

Vosgerau

Acquisti

(2014). Reputation as a sufficient condition for data quality on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods, 46, 1023-1031.

56.

Pierce

J. L.

Gardner

D. G.

(2004). Self-esteem within the work and organizational context: A review of the organization-based self-esteem literature. Journal of Management, 30, 591-622.

57.

Pierce

J. L.

Gardner

D. G.

Cummings

L. L.

Dunham

R. B.

(1989). Organization-based self-esteem: Construct definition, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 622-648.

58.

Pines

A. M.

Zaidman

(2014). Stress and burnout in bicultural teams in hi-tech industry. British Journal of Management, 25, 819-832.

59.

Podsakoff

P. M.

MacKenzie

S. P.

Podsakoff

N. P.

(2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539-569.

60.

Pratt

M. G.

Ashforth

B. E.

(2003). Fostering meaningfulness in working and at work. In Cameron

K. S.

Dutton

J. E.

Quinn

R. E.

(Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 309-327). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

61.

Preacher

K. J.

Kelley

(2011). Effect size measures for mediation models: Quantitative strategies for communicating indirect effects. Psychological Methods, 16, 93-115.

62.

Ramsey

S. R.

Thompson

K. L.

McKenzie

Rosenbaum

(2016). Psychological research in the Internet age: The quality of web-based data. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 354-360.

63.

Randolph

W. A.

Kemery

E. R.

(2011). Managerial use of power bases in a model of managerial empowerment practices and employee psychological empowerment. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 18, 95-106.

64.

Rosso

B. D.

Dekas

K. H.

Wrzesniewski

(2010). On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Research in Organizational Behavior, 30, 91-127.

65.

Schaufeli

W. B.

Leiter

M. P.

Maslach

Jackson

S. E.

(1996). The Maslach Burnout Inventory–GS. In Maslach

Jackson

S. E.

Leiter

M. P.

(Eds.), Maslach Burnout Inventory manual (pp. 22-26). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

66.

Seibert

S. E.

Wang

Courtright

S. H.

(2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96, 981-1003.

67.

Sekiguchi

Burton

J. P.

Sablynski

C. J.

(2008). The role of job embeddedness on employee performance: The interactive effects with leader–member exchange and organization-based self-esteem. Personnel Psychology, 61, 761-792.

68.

Spreitzer

G. M.

(1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442-1465.

69.

Steel

Schmidt

Shultz

(2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138-161.

70.

Steger

M. F.

Dik

B. J.

(2009). If one is searching for meaning in life, does meaning in work help? Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 1, 303-320.

71.

Steger

M. F.

Dik

B. J.

(2010). Work as meaning: Individual and organizational benefits of engaging in meaningful work. In Linley

P. A.

Harrington

Garcea

(Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology and work (pp. 131-142). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

72.

Steger

M. F.

Dik

B. J.

Duffy

R. D.

(2012). Measuring meaningful work: The Work as Meaning Inventory (WAMI). Journal of Career Assessment, 20, 322-337.

73.

Steger

M. F.

Littman-Ovadia

Miller

Menger

Rothmann

(2013). Engaging in work even when it is meaningless: Positive affective disposition and meaningful work interact in relation to work engagement. Journal of Career Assessment, 21, 348-361.

74.

Sumpter

D. M.

Gibson

C. B.

Porath

(2017). Act expediently, with autonomy: Vicarious learning, empowered behaviors, and performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32, 131-145.

75.

Tang

Kwan

H. K.

Zhang

Zhu

(2016). Work–family effects of servant leadership: The roles of emotional exhaustion and personal learning. Journal of Business Ethics, 137, 285-297.

76.

Thau

Aquino

Poortvliet

P. M.

(2007). Self-defeating behaviors in organizations: The relationship between thwarted belonging and interpersonal work behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 840-847.

77.

Tuckey

M. R.

Bakker

A. B.

Dollard

M. F.

(2012). Empow-ering leaders optimize working conditions for engagement: A multilevel study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17, 15-27.

78.

Van Dyne

Vandewalle

Kostova

Latham

M. E.

Cummings

L. L

. (2000). Collectivism, propensity to trust and self-esteem as predictors of organizational citizenship in a non-work setting. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 3-23.

79.

Vecchio

R. P.

Justin

J. E.

Pearce

C. L.

(2010). Empowering leadership: An examination of mediating mechanisms within a hierarchical structure. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 530-542.

80.

Watson

Clark

L. A.

Tellegen

(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.

81.

Whelpley

C. E.

McDaniel

M. A.

(2016). Self-esteem and counterproductive work behaviors: A systematic review. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31, 850-863.

82.

Williams

L. J.

Anderson

S. E.

(1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. Journal of Management, 17, 601-617.

83.

Wrzesniewski

Dutton

J. E.

Debebe

(2003). Interpersonal sensemaking and the meaning of work. In Kramer

R. M.

Staw

B. M.

(Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (pp. 93-135). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.

84.

Zhang

Bartol

K. M.

(2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 107-128.