Abstract
Perceptions of psychological empowerment play a vital role in the way an individual perceives things at the workplace. In spite of this, there is scant research on the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment. This study is an attempt to fill this gap by analyzing the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationship between its antecedents (leader–member exchange) and its consequences (work engagement and psychological withdrawal behavior). Data were collected from 454 employees working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of the information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors operating in India. Results suggest that employees who have a high-quality relationship with their leader have high psychological empowerment, they are highly engaged at work, and their psychological withdrawal behavior is also low. In addition to this, high levels of psychological empowerment have a positive impact on their engagement toward work, which further leads to a low psychological withdrawal behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Highlights
In recent years, leader–member exchange (LMX) has gained a lot of attention from researchers because of its consequences on employees’ work performance (Epitropaki et al, 2016; Schwepker, 2017; Siyal and Peng, 2018)
While looking at the importance of the dyadic relationship between employee and employer, the present study is an attempt to identify the mediating impact of psychological empowerment on the relationship between LMX and its outcome of work engagement and psychological withdrawal behavior of employees working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of the information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors
According to Cautin and Lilienfeld (2015), in order to have a scientifically justified outcome of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), a researcher should select the manifested variables in a measurement model based on the results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
Summary
Leader–member exchange (LMX) has gained a lot of attention from researchers because of its consequences on employees’ work performance (Epitropaki et al, 2016; Schwepker, 2017; Siyal and Peng, 2018). The underlying premise of this theory is that leaders develop a diverse relationship with their subordinates ranging from low (out-group) to high (in-group) quality (Graen and Wakabayashi, 1994; Green et al, 1996; Brower et al, 2009; Dulebohn et al, 2012). A high-quality LMX leads to a higher level of information exchange, trust, competence, commitment, role clarity, greater job satisfaction, and lower job stress (Wang and Yi, 2011; Chernyak-Hai and Tziner, 2014; Martin et al, 2016; Lebrón et al, 2018). While looking at the importance of the dyadic relationship between employee and employer, the present study is an attempt to identify the mediating impact of psychological empowerment on the relationship between LMX and its outcome of work engagement and psychological withdrawal behavior of employees working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of the information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors
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