Role Clarity, Social Skills and the Feedback Seeking/Organizational Outcomes Link

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the underlying mechanisms through which empowerment affects organizational outcomes via a multi-dimensional model. Specifically, the paper suggests that empowerment climate (EC) is positively related to psychological empowerment (PE) and the effect of PE on the outcome variable of job satisfaction is mediated by justice perceptions and role clarity. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 765 employees at the executive level across 26 distinct groups in a large manufacturing firm participated in the survey. Multi-level analyses based on both hierarchical linear modeling and multi-level structural equation modeling techniques were utilized to test the hypotheses. Findings – This research demonstrated that EC significantly affected PE and that perceptions of justice and role clarity mediated the relationship between PE and job satisfaction. Additional analyses demonstrated that EC did not significantly affect organizational outcomes above and beyond PE, justice, and role clarity. Practical implications – The current study suggests that managers concerned with increasing employee perceptions of justice may be able to do so by increasing perceptions of employee empowerment. As only individual employee perceptions of empowerment related directly to organizational outcomes, this demonstrates the importance for managers to understand perceptions of employees. Originality/value – Exploring these mechanisms will strengthen the knowledge regarding how empowerment works to enhance organizational effectiveness. This will enable practitioners to better determine how and when empowerment will be most effective.

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Managing Expectations to Create High Performance Government

Review of Public Personnel Administration ◽

10.1177/0734371x17701544 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 185-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Deborah A. Blackman ◽

Fiona Buick ◽

Janine O’Flynn ◽

Michael O’Donnell ◽

Damian West

Keyword(s):

Performance Management ◽

Public Administration ◽

Public Service ◽

High Performance ◽

Organizational Outcomes ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Expectancy Theory ◽

Role Clarity ◽

High Performance Work Practices ◽

Critical Components

Enhanced performance has been the focus of public administration and management research for years. High performance organizations have characteristics that differentiate them from others; they also utilize high performance work practices (HPWPs). A core HPWP is performance management, which seeks to align individual performance with organizational outcomes. We posit that performance management can enable high performance through managing employee expectations. Drawing on a study undertaken in the Australian Public Service, we demonstrate how using an expectancy theory lens helps explain how performance management can support high performance. We suggest that all three elements of expectancy theory—valance, expectancy, and instrumentality—need to be in place to support the creation of goal and role clarity, critical components of high performance. This offers practitioners a way of structuring effective conversations and scholars the opportunity to consider the theoretical implications of linking expectancy theories, performance management, and high performance.

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