Conflict & Perceptions of Empowerment
Although organizational conflict among team members
has been researched extensively, less attention has been afforded to conflicts
between employees and supervisors.
However, it is important to note how empowerment relates to conflict. “A higher sense of empowerment implies
greater self-control and higher levels of intrinsic motivation through which
people can self-manage their work behavior and performance standards” (Chen,
Lam, Zhong, 2007). Typically, “in supervisor - subordinate
relationships, technical and administrative issues - which fall into the
category of substantive conflicts - were the major topics of disagreements
between employees and their supervisors” (Landry, Vandenberghe, 2009). Instances of conflict resulting from
personality clashes or barriers to interpersonal communication (i.e.,
relationship conflicts) are much less common.
These substantive conflicts (also called issue or task conflicts) refer
to differences regarding ideas, opinions, organizational policies and procedures,
and differing views on working situations (Landry, Vandenberghe, 2009).
In
this particular study, the sample used consisted of 238 supervisor-subordinate dyads
drawn from two Chinese limited corporations of the motor manufacturing
industry, each with more than 1,500 workers.
Questionnaires focused on Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), empowerment
climate, sense of empowerment, negative-feedback seeking behavior, and the insubordinates’
in-role performance, were administered to the groups of employees and
supervisors in separate rooms. The
results were as follows:
- LMX was found to be positively related to negative-feedback seeking behavior.
- LMX was positively and significantly related to both the objective and subjective in-role performance of the subordinates.
- Negative feedback-seeking behavior partially mediated the links between LMX and the subordinates’ objective and subjective in-role performance (Chen, Lam, Zhong, 2007).
In summary, "subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior was found to mediate the
relationship between LMX and work performance, a team’s empowerment climate was
found to be positively related to subordinates’ sense of empowerment, and the moderating
effect of LMX and empowerment was found to negatively moderate the
LMX-performance link” (Chen, Lam, Zhong, 2007).
References:
Chen, Z.,
Lam, W., & Zhong, J.A. (2007). Leader-Member Exchange & Member
Performance: A new look at
Individual-Level Negative-Feedback Seeking
Behavior & Team-Level
Empowerment Climate [Electronic version].
Journal
of Applied Psychology, 92(1), 202-212.
Landry, G.,
Vandenberghe, C. (2009). Role of Commitment to the Supervisor,
Leader-Member Exchange, &
Supervisor-Based Self-Esteem in
Employee-Supervisor
Conflicts [Electronic version]. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 149(1), 5-27.
