Why and When Empowering Leadership Has Different Effects on Employee Work Performance: The Pivotal Roles of Passion for Work and Role Breadth Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Drawing on the dualistic model of passion, the present study examines why and when empowering leadership has different effects on employee work performance including both task performance and creative performance. Field survey data from 69 teams and 266 employees revealed that empowering leadership had a positive indirect relationship with employee work performance via harmonious passion for work and a negative indirect relationship with employee work performance via obsessive passion for work. Moreover, individual role breadth self-efficacy was found to moderate the relationships of empowering leadership with employees’ two types of passion for work, thereby affecting the relationship between empowering leadership and employee work performance. Moderation analyses revealed that empowering leadership was more likely to increase employee work performance when employees have high rather than low levels of role breadth self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.