IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/humman/v2y2017i1d10.1007_s41463-017-0023-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distributed Leadership Agency and Its Relationship to Individual Autonomy and Occupational Self-Efficacy: a Two Wave-Mediation Study in Denmark

Author

Listed:
  • Christine Unterrainer

    (Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences
    University of Innsbruck)

  • Hans Jeppe Jeppesen

    (Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences)

  • Thomas Faurholt Jønsson

    (Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences)

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is the investigation of distributed leadership agency (DLA). DLA is an activity-based concept, which is defined as employees’ active participation in leadership tasks. By combining a descriptive and a normative approach DLA has the potential of real employee empowerment. It can protect from arbitrary managerial power and lead to employees’ personal development through sharing organizational resources, influencing leadership activities and joint decision making in companies. The study examines individually perceived autonomy as an antecedent and employees’ occupational self-efficacy as an outcome of DLA over time. Furthermore, the study tests the mediating role of DLA on the autonomy – self-efficacy relationship. The two-wave study applied an online survey in a Danish municipality with a time lag of seven months. We used regression analyses for testing the cross-sectional as well as cross-lagged relationships and an autoregressive model for analyzing the half-longitudinal mediation. The results revealed a significant positive effect of DLA on employees’ occupational self-efficacy cross-sectionally at Time 1 (n = 117) and Time 2 (n = 67), as well as cross-lagged (n = 67). The cross-sectional and cross-lagged findings also support a significant positive impact of autonomy on DLA. However, DLA only mediated the autonomy–self-efficacy relationship cross-sectionally, but not over time. Computed alternative causal models corroborate the proposed direction of our hypothesized relationships. These results provide first evidence that structural features such as autonomy are timely prior to action-related behavior (DLA), and that participating in leadership tasks enhances employees’ occupational self-efficacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Unterrainer & Hans Jeppe Jeppesen & Thomas Faurholt Jønsson, 2017. "Distributed Leadership Agency and Its Relationship to Individual Autonomy and Occupational Self-Efficacy: a Two Wave-Mediation Study in Denmark," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 57-81, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:humman:v:2:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s41463-017-0023-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s41463-017-0023-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41463-017-0023-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41463-017-0023-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jun Ishikawa, 2012. "Transformational leadership and gatekeeping leadership: The roles of norm for maintaining consensus and shared leadership in team performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 265-283, June.
    2. Michael Pirson & Paul Lawrence, 2010. "Humanism in Business – Towards a Paradigm Shift?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 553-565, June.
    3. Albert Satorra & Peter Bentler, 2001. "A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 66(4), pages 507-514, December.
    4. Pirson, Michael & Goodpaster, Kenneth & Dierksmeier, Claus, 2016. "Guest Editors’ Introduction: Human Dignity and Business," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 465-478, October.
    5. Claus Dierksmeier, 2016. "What is ‘Humanistic’ About Humanistic Management?," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 9-32, September.
    6. McCall, John J., 2001. "Employee Voice in Corporate Governance: A Defense of Strong Participation Rights," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 195-213, January.
    7. Yammarino, Francis J. & Salas, Eduardo & Serban, Andra & Shirreffs, Kristie & Shuffler, Marissa L., 2012. "Collectivistic Leadership Approaches: Putting the “We” in Leadership Science and Practice," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 382-402, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Pirson, 2017. "Better Stories Needed: How Meaningful Narratives can Transform the World," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael Pirson, 2019. "A Humanistic Perspective for Management Theory: Protecting Dignity and Promoting Well-Being," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 39-57, September.
    2. Abigail B. Schneider & Daniel P. Justin, 2020. "Educating for an Inclusive Economy: Cultivating Relationality Through International Immersion," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 133-151, July.
    3. Michael Pirson & Mario Vázquez-Maguirre & Canan Corus & Erica Steckler & Andrew Wicks, 2019. "Dignity and the Process of Social Innovation: Lessons from Social Entrepreneurship and Transformative Services for Humanistic Management," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 125-153, December.
    4. Anne Matheson & Pamala J. Dillon & Manuel Guillén & Clark Warner, 2021. "People Mattering at Work: A Humanistic Management Perspective," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 405-428, December.
    5. Laura Vieten & Anne Marit Wöhrmann & Alexandra Michel, 2022. "Work-Time Control and Exhaustion: Internal Work-to-Home Interference and Internal Home-to-Work Interference as Mediators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Ruth Hancock & Marcello Morciano & Stephen Pudney & Francesca Zantomio, 2015. "Do household surveys give a coherent view of disability benefit targeting?: a multisurvey latent variable analysis for the older population in Great Britain," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 178(4), pages 815-836, October.
    7. Dara M Wald & Susan K Jacobson, 2014. "A Multivariate Model of Stakeholder Preference for Lethal Cat Management," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-9, April.
    8. Flore Geukens & Annette Spithoven & Margot Bastin & Janne Vanhalst & Marlies Maes, 2022. "Lonely in Different Relationships: Bidirectional Effects between Parent- and Peer-Related Loneliness in Adolescence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-10, June.
    9. Peter Tavel & Bibiana Jozefiakova & Peter Telicak & Jana Furstova & Michal Puza & Natalia Kascakova, 2022. "Psychometric Analysis of the Shortened Version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale on the Slovak Population (SWBS-Sk)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, January.
    10. Sai-fu Fung & Esther Oi-wah Chow & Chau-kiu Cheung, 2020. "Development and Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of a Brief Wisdom Development Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Sohn, Stefanie, 2017. "A contextual perspective on consumers' perceived usefulness: The case of mobile online shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 22-33.
    12. Wei Sun & Ang Xu & Yufan Shang, 2014. "Transformational leadership, team climate, and team performance within the NPD team: Evidence from China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 127-147, March.
    13. Jose M. Martín-Criado & Jose A. Casas & Rosario Ortega-Ruiz, 2021. "Parental Supervision: Predictive Variables of Positive Involvement in Cyberbullying Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    14. Mathilde Sengoelge & Øivind Solberg & Alexander Nissen & Fredrik Saboonchi, 2020. "Exploring Social and Financial Hardship, Mental Health Problems and the Role of Social Support in Asylum Seekers Using Structural Equation Modelling," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-14, September.
    15. Laura Castro-Schilo & Barbara L. Fredrickson & Dan Mungas, 2019. "Association of Positive Affect with Cognitive Health and Decline for Elder Mexican Americans," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 2385-2400, December.
    16. Zi Jia Ng & Eugene Scott Huebner & Alberto Maydeu-Olivares & Kimberly Joy Hills, 2018. "Confirmatory Factor Analytic Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1237-1247, August.
    17. Junjiao Feng & Liang Zhang & Chunhui Chen & Jintao Sheng & Zhifang Ye & Kanyin Feng & Jing Liu & Ying Cai & Bi Zhu & Zhaoxia Yu & Chuansheng Chen & Qi Dong & Gui Xue, 2022. "A cognitive neurogenetic approach to uncovering the structure of executive functions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    18. Michael Sheppard, 2020. "The relationship between discretionary slack and growth in small firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 195-219, March.
    19. Carmen Berné-Manero & Marta Pedraja-Iglesias & Pilar Ramo-Sáez, 2017. "Socially responsible markets involved in the consumer-organization identification process," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(2), pages 179-196, June.
    20. Calvo Porral, Cristina & Martínez Fernández, Valentín Alejandro & Juanatey Boga, Oscar, 2016. "Influência da assinatura do fabricante na lealdade e intenção de compra de marcas próprias de varejista," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 56(1), January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:humman:v:2:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s41463-017-0023-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.