To Thine Own (Empowered) Self Be True: Aligning Social Hierarchy Motivation And Leader Behavior

Research to date has advanced opposing viewpoints on whether leaders who are psychologically empowered support the autonomy of their subordinates or engage in controlling leader behaviors. Our integration of research on empowerment and social hierarchy suggests that leaders' feelings of empowerment can promote autonomy-supporting and/or controlling leader behaviors, contingent on the leaders' prestige and dominance motivations, respectively. Our findings demonstrate that, among leaders high (vs. low) in prestige motivation, psychological empowerment is positively related to autonomy-supporting leader behaviors because these leaders prefer to influence others by earning their freely conferred respect and deference. In contrast, among leaders high (vs. low) in dominance motivation, psychological empowerment is positively related to controlling leader behaviors because these leaders prefer to influence others using authority and control. Three empirical studies support our theoretical model.