Empowering leadership for contextual performance: serial mediation of organizational support and commitment

Purpose - This study analyzes, from the perspective of social exchange theory, the influence of empowering leadership on contextual performance mediated by perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AOC). Design/methodology/approach - A survey was carried out with 182 employees of the Best Companies to Work in Brazil. Data analysis was performed by structural equation modeling (SEM) and by fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings - Results demonstrate that empowering leadership directly influences higher contextual performance and indirectly through the mediation of AOC, but not through POS. Serial mediation confirms that the model's variables self-promote each other to ultimately foster higher performance. Furthermore, all solutions to obtain high contextual performance include empowering leadership in the dimension of trust in the high performance of employees. Research limitations/implications - The statistical support for the serial mediation indicates that empowering leadership promotes POS, which influences AOC that finally promotes the employee's contextual performance. However, this study's model does not include employees' task performance; our results add to the contextual performance literature. Practical implications - The study highlights the role of the empowering leadership style in the organizational context, an aspect that deserves attention from the managers and organizations due to its effect on employee performance. Originality/value - The study adds a new framework to the literature, which can be used by organizations to promote contextual performance. The variables, which include contextual and individual factors, foster the employee's contextual performance in a joint and self-promoting way. Contextual performance exceeds the manager's technical attributions; it covers psychological and discretionary behaviors.