Structural and psychological empowerment climates, performance, and the moderating role of shared felt accountability: a managerial perspective

J Appl Psychol. 2011 Jul;96(4):840-50. doi: 10.1037/a0022227.

Abstract

The authors proposed and tested a model in which data were collected from managers (n = 539) at 116 corporate-owned quick service restaurants to assess the structural and psychological empowerment process as moderated by shared-felt accountability on indices of performance from a managerial perspective. The authors found that empowering leadership climate positively relates to psychological empowerment climate. In turn, psychological empowerment climate relates to performance only under conditions of high-felt accountability; it does not relate to performance under conditions of low-felt accountability. Overall, the present results indicate that the quick-service restaurant managers, who feel more empowered, operate restaurants that perform better than managers who feel less empowered, but only when those empowered managers also feel a high sense of accountability.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Employee Performance Appraisal / standards*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Leadership*
  • Male
  • Models, Statistical
  • Organizational Culture
  • Personnel Management / standards*
  • Power, Psychological*
  • Psychological Tests
  • Social Responsibility*
  • United States
  • Young Adult