• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.217-230
• /
• 2020

In a view of rapidly changing business environment, the success and competing power of organizations depend on committed, highly motivated and satisfied human resources. Empowerment is mainly concerned with establishing and building trust between management and employees, and motivating their participation. Also, behavioral integrity emphasizing on the characteristics of effective leaders has shown as direct action that strengthens positive consequences in organizations. However, research regarding behavioral integrity is very limited. Based on the Self-determination Theory, this paper investigates the effect of empowering leadership on employee's job satisfaction and work engagement. Multi-group analysis based on behavioral integrity is also analyzed. An online survey was conducted and 298 employees' data were collected. Using structural equation modeling, results suggest as follows. First, empowering leadership had a positive effect on individual's job satisfaction mediated by their work engagement. Second, the result of the multi-group analysis showed that the effect of empowering leadership on work engagement is stronger in the group with high behavioral integrity. Contrary to the prediction, the result doesn't support the moderating effect on job satisfaction. These findings contribute to our understanding of empowering leadership process. Based on the results, several theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.