Empowering Leadership, Employee Commitment, and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: Roles of Leader Authenticity and Trust

Abstract

Purpose – This thesis focuses on the role of empowering leadership through the mediating mechanism of trust in the leader and the moderating mechanism of leader authenticity. It contributes to prior literature by responding to the need to study the positive outcomes of empowering leadership, its relationship with trust in the leader, and the need to study more than one leadership style simultaneously. Design/methodology/approach - The model was studied through the lens of the leader member exchange theory. Using bootstrapping tests and structural equation modeling, the model was tested with a sample of 153 participants from the hospitality industry. Findings - It was found that trust in the leader mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and citizenship behaviour as well as commitment amongst employees and that the direct relationships between empowering leadership and the two outcomes exist as well. Moreover, the moderating role of leader authenticity was examined. Originality/value – This study brings to light the significance of empowering leadership, especially for hospitality workers who often operate in an autocratic and deeply hierarchical environment. The essential linkage between empowering leadership and trust in the leader was empirically verified in this paper. Results provide a pathway for employees and how their supervisors should adopt an empowering form of leadership and inculcate trust in employees. Findings indicate significant theoretical and practical implications and provide recommendations for future research.