Journal article

Bringing the Leader Back in: Why, How, and When Leadership Empowerment Behavior Shapes Coworker Conflict

M Adamovic, P Gahan, JE Olsen, B Harley, J Healy, M Theilacker

Group and Organization Management | SAGE Publications | Published : 2020

Abstract

With the diffusion of team-based work organizations and flatter organizational hierarchies, many leaders empower employees to perform their work. Empowerment creates an interesting tension regarding coworker conflict, enhancing trust and giving employees more autonomy to prevent conflict, while also increasing workload and the potential for coworker conflict. Recent conflict research has focused on how characteristics of individuals, groups, and tasks contribute to conflict among coworkers. We extend this work by exploring the role of leader empowerment behavior (LEB) in influencing coworker conflict. Our model integrates research on LEB and coworker conflict to help organizations manage cow..

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