Abstract:

With the profound changes in the external environment, how to promote leaders’ empowering behavior has been emphasized both practically and academically. However, previous researches lacks systematically theoretical analysis of the formation of leader empowering behavior, and have the tendency of "leader-centered" bias, which lead to their failure to solve the practical issues. Thus, based on goal theory, the present paper investigates the roles of leaders and subordinates comprehensively in the context of teams, and conducts theoretical and empirical researches on the forming mechanism of leader empowering behavior. Firstly, this paper will conduct a multi-case study to explore the different types of goal congruence and their processes that promote leader empowering behavior, aiming to develop a theoretical framework of the forming mechanism of leader empowering behavior. Secondly, this paper will empirically investigate the effects of these goal congruence on leader empowering behavior by collecting the longitudinal and dyadic data. Finally, we will test the forming mechanism of leader empowering behavior comprehensively. Accordingly, this research contributes to the leader empowering behavior research in terms of advancing the understanding on the forming mechanism of leader empowering behavior, and better grasping the forming rules of leader empowering behavior. In addition, this project is also helpful for enterprises to carry out the management practices more accurately.

Key words: leader empowering behavior, goal theory, goal congruence, forming mechanism