领导授权赋能行为的维度确认与测量

The Dimensionality and Measure of Empowering Leadership Behavior in the Chinese Organizations

采用实证研究的方法对中国企业情境下领导授权赋能行为(empowering leadership behavior)的维度及其测量进行了研究。首先采用开放式问卷收集了877条领导授权赋能行为的描述,归类分析表明,中国企业情境下的领导授权赋能行为包括9个类别,并在此基础上形成了封闭式问卷。201份有效问卷的探索性因子分析表明,领导授权赋能行为是一个6因素的结构,具体包括:个人发展支持、过程控制、权力委任、结果和目标控制、参与决策、工作指导。为了进一步验证领导授权赋能行为的结构效度,并考察问卷的信度和预测效度,在2家企业进行了问卷调查,获得了420份有效问卷。验证性因子分析确认了领导授权赋能行为的结构效度,内部一致性分析和回归分析的结果也表明,基于我国企业管理者的领导授权赋能行为量表具有较好的信度和效度,其对下属的心理授权赋能感、工作满意度和情感承诺等工作结果有一定预测作用。

Empowering leadership refers to behaviors that enable and motivate subordinates to achieve high level of performance by creating a sense of psychological empowerment. Researchers have found that empowering practices such as delegating authority and incorporating employees into decision making serve as an important drive of effectiveness at individual, group, and organizational levels. Different dimensions of empowering leadership behaviors were identified, including leading by example, participative decision making, coaching, informing, and showing concern in the western literature. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the domain of empowering leadership behavior and develop an indigenous measure in the Chinese organizations. Three studies consisted of the research. In the first study, the critical behavior incidents of empowering leadership behavior were collected using open-ended questionnaire. 877 items were generated by 56 part-time MBA students. Nine categories were summarized based on a solid inductive method. In the second study, 201 part-time MBA students consisted of the sample and exploratory factor analysis was employed to identify the construct of the Chinese measure of empowering leadership behavior. In the third study, confirmatory factor analysis and regression model were used to test the validity of the measure with a sample of 420 employees from two companies. A Chinese measure of empowering leadership behavior with six dimensions, including support for individual development, process control, delegation of authority, outcome control, participation in decision-making, and coaching for work, was developed through the three studies. The measure had acceptable reliability and validity. In addition, the results showed that the empowering leadership behavior of the Chinese leaders had significantly positive effects on psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and affective commitment of employees. The measure developed in the research provides a starting point for future studies on the Chinese empowering leadership behaviors. We call for more researchers who are interested in the leadership behavior to work together to investigate the topic. The relevant research will not only be helpful to understand the phenomenon of leadership in the Chinese context, but also provide practical implications for managers. In order to initiate a high level of intrinsic motivation of subordinates in the workplace, empowering behavior such as support for individual development and coaching for work are the critical practices of leaders.