Sun F, Li X, Akhtar MN. Negative Influences of Differentiated Empowering Leadership on Team Members' Helping Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Envy and Contempt.
Psychol Res Behav Manag 2022;
15:9-20. [PMID:
35027850 PMCID:
PMC8749434 DOI:
10.2147/prbm.s346470]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Purpose
Given the popularity of empowerment practices among scholars and practitioners, this research examines whether a manager’s differentiated empowering leadership negatively affects team members’ helping behaviors and, if so, how.
Methods
The authors conducted one multi-source and time-lagged survey (with 44 managers and 212 team members) and two scenario-based experiments (with 120 participants in Study 2 and 121 participants in Study 3) to test the research model.
Results
Team managers’ differentiated empowering leadership decreases team members’ helping behaviors. In particular, for team members who receive less empowerment, differentiated empowering leadership may decrease their helping behaviors by eliciting their envy. For team members who receive more empowerment, differentiated empowering leadership may decrease their helping behaviors by inducing their contempt.
Conclusion
This research introduces the concept of differentiated empowering leadership in response to calls to investigate the dark side of empowering leadership. It reveals that unequal distribution of authority among team members by managers can undermine employee relations and elicit negative emotions of envy and contempt, thereby decreasing employees’ helping behaviors.
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