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.