Why and How Does Empowering Leadership Promote Proactive Work Behavior? An Examination with a Serial Mediation Model among Hotel Employees

Chung-Jen Wang and I-Hsiu Yang
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Chung-Jen Wang: Department of Hotel and Restaurant Management, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, 1, Shufu Road, Neipu, Pingtung 912301, Taiwan
I-Hsiu Yang: Department of Hotel and Restaurant Management, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, 1, Shufu Road, Neipu, Pingtung 912301, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: With the increasing competition in contemporary enterprise, sustainable human resource management is a powerful resource for workplace mental health. On the basis of job demands-recourses theory and conservation of resources theory, this study examined the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ proactive work behavior. It also explored how job design inspires employees to be embedded in their work and to exhibit proactive work behavior. In addition, the research probed the mediating roles of job characteristics and job embeddedness in a serial mediation model within an integrated model. Data were collected from 461 employees of three- to five-star hotels through stratified random sampling. Results indicated that (1) empowering leadership has positive influences on job characteristics and proactive work behavior; (2) job characteristics have a positive influence on job embeddedness; (3) job embeddedness has a positive influence on proactive work behavior; (4) job characteristics mediate the effect of empowering leadership on proactive work behavior; (5) job embeddedness mediates the effect of empowering leadership on proactive work behavior; and (6) job characteristics and job embeddedness jointly mediate the effect of empowering leadership on proactive work behavior by bootstrapping analyses. Accordingly, this study suggests that promoting sustainable human resource management is needed for human health and organizational value at work, both of which enable empowering leadership to improve proactive work behavior via job characteristics and job embeddedness. The theoretical and managerial implications of empirical findings are also discussed.

Keywords: sustainable human resource management; human health; empowering leadership; job characteristics; job embeddedness; proactive work behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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