Impact of Decision-Making Empowerment on Attributions of Leadership

Although empowerment often makes a team more effective, managers do not use this tool extensively. One explanation for this is that managers fear that individuals will draw negative conclusions about their leadership abilities if they use an inappropriate degree of decision-making empowerment (DME). The current research explored this hypothesis, using scenarios to manipulate DME, organizational setting, manager gender, and task outcome. Officer cadets (N?=?173) judged appropriateness of the manager's use of empowerment; degree of leadership shown; and willingness to work for the manager. Cadets saw high DME as significantly more appropriate than low, resulting in significantly higher leadership attributions and a greater willingness to work for the manager. Findings held regardless of context or gender. Task outcome also affected attributions.