Defining and Measuring Empowering Leader Behaviors: Development of an Upward Feedback Instrument
Abstract
Empowerment is a popular management practice, but there has been little research to identify empowering behaviors of leaders. The present article discusses the development of an instrument designed to measure empowering leader behavior (Study 1) and the relationship of the instrument to several theoretically relevant variables (Study 2). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a six-dimension model of empowering leader behavior. Furthermore, psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between six dimensions of empowering leader behavior and two outcome variables, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
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Empowering leadership is theorised to build trust through positive exchange behaviours and leader vulnerability/confidence.
“Empowering behaviours such as providing discretion and latitude over decision making constitute positive exchange behaviours. Furthermore, empowering ones followers makes a leader vulnerable and demonstrates confidence; key features of trust (Zhang & Zhou, 2014).”
From A meta-analysis of the role of trust in the leadership- performance relationship (2021) · cites this paper as Konczak, Stelly, & Trusty, (2000)
Cites
Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey.
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0076546 · Cited by 7,246 · see citing works
Process Analysis: Estimating Mediation in Treatment Evaluations
Judd, C. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1981) · Evaluation Review · doi:10.1177/0193841x8100500502 · Cited by 2,442 · see citing works
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Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis
van Dierendonck, D. (2011) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206310380462 · Cited by 2,218 · see citing works
The Servant Leadership Survey: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure
van Dierendonck, D., & Nuijten, I. (2011) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-010-9194-1 · Cited by 920 · see citing works
“Accountability, as defined in this article, has to our knowledge only been included in the study on empowering leader behaviors by Konczak et al. (2000).”
BackgroundInfluentialLeadership behavior and employee well-being: An integrated review and a future research agenda
Inceoglu, I., Thomas, G., Chu, C., Plans, D., & Gerbasi, A. (2018) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.12.006 · Cited by 670 · see citing works
A meta-analysis of the role of trust in the leadership- performance relationship
Legood, A., van der Werff, L., Lee, A., & Den Hartog, D. (2021) · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1080/1359432x.2020.1819241 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
Servant leadership and engagement in a merge process under high uncertainty
Jorge Correia de Sousa, M., & van Dierendonck, D. (2014) · Journal of Organizational Change Management · doi:10.1108/jocm-07-2013-0133 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
- Authors
- Konczak, L. J., Stelly, D. J., & Trusty, M. L.
- Affiliations
- Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
- J.C. Penney
- Venue
- Educational and Psychological Measurement
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2000-04
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 301-313
- ISSN
- 0013-1644 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3888
- OpenAlex
- W2090179965
- Cited by
- 474
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 2.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Educational and Psychological Measurement (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
- Keywords
- upward feedback, psychological empowerment, instrument development, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, upward communication
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