The forgotten side of empowering others

The forgotten side of empowering others: How lower social structural empowerment attenuates the effects of empowering leadership on employee psychological empowerment and performance.

Research and theory have frequently argued that leadership aimed at empowering employees has a positive effect on their psychological empowerment (the sense of control and influence over their work). This type of leadership is often hailed as the way to give employees more influence and self-confidence. However, we argue that too little attention is paid to another important aspect: social structural empowerment. This involves employees’ access to resources, information and support within the organization. This aspect has often been overlooked until now.

Based on empowerment theory, we suggest that social structural empowerment may have an important influence on the relationship between reinforcing leadership and psychological empowerment. We argue that reinforcing leadership and social structural empowerment influence each other. If employees have limited access to resources, information and support, this may reduce the positive effects of reinforcing leadership. Ultimately, this can also negatively affect their performance at work.

Four studies show that when employees experience less social structural empowerment, this weakens the positive impact of reinforcing leadership on their psychological empowerment and job performance. We emphasize that it is important to also take social structural empowerment into account because it plays a crucial role in how effective reinforcing leadership is.