The Cross-Level Effect of Authentic Leadership on Teacher Emotional Exhaustion: The Chain Mediating Role of Structural and Psychological Empowerment. (2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Zhihua; Yang, Fu
• Is Part Of: Journal of Pacific Rim psychology. Volume 12(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018
• Subjects: authentic leadership, -- structural empowerment, -- psychological empowerment, -- emotional exhaustion; Psychology -- Oceania -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Islands of the Pacific -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.99
• DOI: 10.1017/prp.2018.23
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1834-4909

Abstract

Abstract : Although previous research has found that authentic leadership has a negative effect on employee burnout through structural empowerment, lack of psychological empowerment in the research cannot present a complete picture on how authentic leadership influences burnout because employees must experience being psychologically empowered for empowerment to be effective. Drawing on empowerment-related theories, this study integrates the three different perspectives of empowerment (authentic leadership, structural empowerment, and psychological empowerment) to examine their effects on emotional exhaustion, the core component of burnout, at multiple levels of analysis. Using a sample of 378 teachers from 59 primary and secondary schools in China, multilevel structural equation modelling results revealed that: (1) authentic leadership had an indirect effect on psychological empowerment partially through structural empowerment, (2) psychological empowerment played a full mediating role in the relationship between structural empowerment and emotional exhaustion, and (3) structural empowerment and psychological empowerment sequentially mediated the effect of authentic leadership on emotional exhaustion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.