We compared the effects of empowering leadership on employee task performance in Western and Eastern cultures. To our surprise, we found that leaders who were perceived as empowering by employees in companies located in Eastern cultures such as China had a bigger effect on routine performance than leaders in Western cultures like the U.
In other words, empowering leadership behaviors e. This result may be explained by the fact that, in Eastern societies, like China, India, and the Republic of Korea, those in more powerful positions are expected to assist and support those in lower positions, while subordinates are expected to be loyal and obey their leader.
This social norm should enhance the acceptance of leadership empowerment among employees and even amplify its effects. But in Western societies, like the U. In this context, the extensive care and concern shown by an empowering leader could be seen as an intrusion or even an attempt at informal control.
This may explain why we found weaker effects in Western cultures, where empowering leadership is seemingly not always welcomed. We also looked at whether empowering leadership would be more effective in labor-intensive businesses such as hospitality, construction, education, medical care , where people are key to organizational effectiveness, compared to asset-intensive businesses for example, energy, telecommunications, and transportation , which require substantial investment in physical or financial assets.
To our surprise, we did not find that to be the case. We assumed that empowering leadership might be more constrained in asset-intensive businesses due to automation and highly structured work processes, but our finding suggests that empowering leadership is beneficial across different industries. Finally, we explored which employees might benefit most from a leader who seeks to empower them. We found that empowering leadership had a stronger positive influence on the day-to-day performance of employees who had less experience in the organization compared to employees who had been in their jobs for longer.
In other words, empowering leaders saw greater improvements in job performance among less experienced employees than among more experienced employees.
This also surprised us as we thought employees with less experience and job knowledge would be less able to seize opportunities given to them by managers. However, it is also likely that newer members of staff are especially keen to take opportunities and make a good first impression. Thus, affording newer staff the opportunity to take ownership of their role may be a particularly effective leadership tool. Although our meta-analysis revealed new insights about empowering leaders, in some areas relatively few studies were available for analysis.
For example, longitudinal studies were very rare and thus we could not determine causality — our correlations do not confirm whether empowering leadership caused increases in employee performance or whether employees who performed better were more likely to be given additional responsibility and empowered by their leaders.
Overall, though, our results suggest that empowering leadership can motivate employees and fuel their creativity, but it can also create additional burdens and stress that may hurt their routine performance.
It is crucial for managers to understand that empowering leadership has its limits and that factors like trust and experience affect how their behaviors are perceived. You have 1 free article s left this month.
Particularly important are a clear vision — one that provides a strategic framework within which staff can operate, learning opportunities for people to develop and systems and procedures that encourage rather than inhibit empowered behaviour. This is guaranteed to destroy any sense of empowerment. It is vital that, whatever the mistake or problem, you must publicly support the members of your team.
Remember that you are a role model for them, so the behaviour you adopt, they will follow. Start blaming them and you will find that you have quickly created a blame culture, not an empowered one. People need to feel that their working lives are being enriched if they are to embrace empowerment. Often, systems and procedures can make them feel the opposite — that they are undervalued, overworked or poorly rewarded and that empowerment is just another attempt to take advantage of them.
Ideally, you need to ensure that systems and procedures work for them, not against them. Anomalies in pay need to be removed, rewards need to be fair and consistent, responsibilities should match the job description, and so on. It may be that you can do little about your company systems and procedures and this can be a real problem. However, it is surprising how much a creative person can achieve without actually breaking any of those rules!
Far more people than you would probably imagine want to see progress, this motivates them to work overtime and go that extra mile. Frequently hi-tech Silicon Valley companies are quoted as the forerunners of this approach, to quote Forbes [1].
This is all about accountability and engagement, how can employees be encouraged to go this extra mile? Jan Muehlfeit [2] , ex boss at Microsoft, says that a leader needs to be authentic and fair, by managing teams on the basis of their strengths it is possible to encourage everyone to give their best. One should not underestimate the importance of inspiration, if a leader shows that s he really lives and works on the basis of a defined set of values — if they walk the talk — they remain credible and thus transmit a purpose to the people working for them.
Conversely the result will be resignation and demotivation, two highly contagious frames of mind, which every company can well do without. Inevitably the company culture will play a crucial role in enhancing employee empowerment. The absence of middle management necessitates a far greater level of engagement among employees, so it is vital to align their ambitions with the expectations placed in them.
Longterm recognition of personal contributions and appreciation of how important a staff member is to the future of the company are crucial factors when trying to embed a policy of employee empowerment. Similarly these factors serve to enhance the feeling of belonging and of loyalty, which so many bosses say is lacking among their workforce.
If newer members of staff see that they can aim for longterm recognition by accepting tougher challenges and stepping up to the mark, they will probably do so; many of them are looking for a sense in what they do. What is their potential contribution to the overall wellbeing of the company and is this appreciated?
Whereas as monetary aspects may seem attractive on a short term basis, the prospect of greater autonomy and of really being able to make a difference may tip the balance in favour of staying with a company and not changing to a more rigid structure where suggestions are met with opposition and ideas suffocated in a long process of discussion and assessment.
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