The empowering potential of intergroup leadership: How intergroup leadership predicts psychological empowerment through intergroup relational identification and resources

Joost van der Stoep, Ed Sleebos*, Daan van Knippenberg, Gerhard van de Bunt

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

As work increasingly transcends organizational boundaries, employee psychological empowerment benefits from resources provided by others outside of the employee's own team, department, or organization. These intergroup collaborations, however, may be inhibited by social identity and social categorization processes, so that the empowerment potential of these relations remains largely untapped. In this study (N = 213), we demonstrate that intergroup leadership is linked to employee psychological empowerment via intergroup relational identification and access to resources. In this way, this study demonstrates the empowering potential of intergroup leadership and intergroup relational identification for employees who collaborate across group barriers. We finish this paper by discussing the main implications for both empowerment and intergroup leadership theory, suggesting fruitful avenues for future research and highlighting the practical value for those who are motivated to increase psychological empowerment among boundary-spanning employees.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)709-719
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Applied Social Psychology
Volume50
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

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