Empowerment and organizational identification. The mediating role of leader–member exchange and the moderating role of leader trustworthiness
| Published date | 21 November 2019 |
| Pages | 571-596 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2018-0054 |
| Date | 21 November 2019 |
| Author | Alper Ertürk,Taner Albayrak |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Empowerment and
organizational identification
The mediating role of leader–member
exchange and the moderating role
of leader trustworthiness
Alper Ertürk
Department of Management Information Systems,
Duzce Universitesi, Duzce, Turkey, and
Taner Albayrak
Department of Maritime Management, Piri Reis University, Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the mechanism through which perceived empowerment
practices in a firm influence employees’organizational identification. Specifically, the authors posit the
mediating role of leader‒member exchange (LMX) and the moderating role of leader trustworthiness in
the relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected through survey from 236 white-collar employees
working in 20 private companies in Turkey. The authors tested the model using hierarchical regression and
conditional process analysis.
Findings –Findings of this study are as follows: first, LMX mediates the relationship between empowerment
practices and organizational identification, second, leader integrity, a dimension of trustworthiness,
moderates the relationship between empowerment practices and LMX and the relationship betweenLMX and
organizational identification and, third, leader integrity moderates the indirect effect of empowerment
practices on organizational identification via LMX. These direct and indirect effects are stronger when leaders
have higher integrity than when they have lower integrity.
Originality/value –This studyenhances the understanding ofthe mechanism through which empowerment
practices influenceemployees’organizational identification.
Keywords Quantitative, Empowerment, Moderated mediation, Trustworthiness,
Organizational identification, Leader‒member exchange (LMX)
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
As the value and importance of people in the organizations have become more and more
crucial, different human resource programs and applications are increasingly called upon to
enhance employees’performance and organizational identification (Grojean et al., 2005).
Organizational identification refers to a feeling of oneness or belongingness to a particular
group or institution (Van Knippenberg and Van Schie,2000). Employees who stronglyidentify
with their organization tend to have a positive attitude toward the organization, have less
intention to leave (Van Dick et al., 2007), are more satisfied with their job (Van Knippenberg
and Van Schie, 2000),display more organizationalcitizenship behaviors (Van Dick et al.,2007)
and better cooperate with other organizational members, leading to higher performance
(Piccoli et al., 2017).
As empowerment being one of the most effective human resource practices (Lee et al.,
2018), we posit that there will be a positive association between empowerment and
organizationalidentification. Empowermentis expected to foster organizational identification
by maintainingand enhancing self-esteem andfeelings of self-worth. Althoughthere are some
studies demonstrating positive relationship between psychological empowerment and
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 2, 2020
pp. 571-596
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-02-2018-0054
Received 12 February 2018
Revised 4 July 2018
15 August 2018
17 January 2019
Accepted 9 July 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
571
Empowerment
and
organizational
identification
employees’attachment to the organization (e.g. Castroet al., 2008; Joo and Shim, 2010; Kimand
Fernandez, 2017), only a few studies have tested whether, how and through which
mechanisms actual empowerment practices relate to organizational identification.
According to the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), leader‒member exchange (LMX) is
broadly defined as the quality of the relationship between supervisors and subordinates,
involving exchange of information and socio-emotional resources, such as respect, loyalty,
etc. (Eisenberger et al., 2002; Wayne et al., 1997). Based on the previous research linking
LMX quality to a wide range of work outcomes including turnover, organizational
commitment, citizenship behaviors and performance (Dulebohn et al., 2012; Gerstner and
Day, 1997; Ilies et al., 2007; Martin et al., 2016; Wayne et al., 1997), in this study, we also posit
that LMX would mediate the relationship between empowerment and organizational
identification. When employees are more empowered, due to the mutual trust formed
between themselves and their supervisors, they would have more effective and healthier
social exchange. However, organizational empowerment practices should not be seen
equivalent to supervisor support, as there might be two exchange relationships: exchange
with the organization and exchange with the leader. In turn, when employees perceive that
they are more valued and respected within the organization, they will most likely be
strongly identified with the organization. Research has provided significant support on the
mediating role of LMX (e.g. Clarke and Mahadi, 2017; Gu et al., 2015; Lee, 2005; Newman
et al., 2017; Reid et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2012).
Researchers have also suggested that high-quality LMX involves high levels of
interpersonal social exchange relationship, which carries the relationship beyond the formal
employment contract (Ilies et al., 2007). Therefore, prior research primarily studied LMX as a
social exchange relationship involving high levels of affective interpersonal trust. Despite
the fact that inclusion of trust and trustworthiness is critical to a deeper understanding of
LMX relationships, little effort has been made to synthesize different trust dimensions in the
context of LMX relationships. There is still a considerable lack of agreement among LMX
researchers with regard to how trust, specifically trustworthiness, influences the role of
LMX quality. This study aims to close the gap in the literature by including trustworthiness
of the leader as a moderator into the model, in which LMX is a mediator between
empowerment and organizational identification.
Accordingly, the primary goal of the present research is to extend the current research
by developing and testing a theoretically grounded model that casts light on the mechanism
how empowerment promotes organizational identification via the mediating effect of LMX
and moderating effect of trustworthiness of the leader.
This study seeks to contribute to the literature in several aspects. Our first and most
important contribution is to further increase understanding of the relationship between
empowerment and organizational identification by simultaneously testing moderation and
mediation. Although there are some research works examining the roles of organizational
identification and trustworthiness together (e.g. Smith et al., 2017), to the best of our
knowledge, we are aware of no prior research studies that have simultaneously tested LMX
and trustworthiness to explain the influen ce of empowerment on org anizational
identification. By having LMX as a mediator in the center of the model proposed in our
research, this study responds to calls for research on the integration of LMX with other
variables to investigate its further possible influence on employees’work-related attitudes
and behaviors (Dulebohn et al., 2012; Erdogan and Enders, 2007; Erdogan and Liden, 2006).
By examining a moderated mediation model, our research aims to shed further light on the
dynamics of empowerment practices and leadership in organizational settings.
Second, most of the previous studies have shown that the link between LMX and
employees’work-related attitudes and behaviors is not uniformly positive, yet there is a
paucity of research concerning the boundary conditions through which LMX influences
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