The Effect of Empowerment on Employees’ Adaptive Performance

Results, obtained using structural equation modeling on a sample of 390 French employees, supported our hypotheses. They highlighted the positive effect of managerial empowerment on adaptive performance. In addition, results showed that empowerment was more strongly related to adaptive performance when perceived supervisor support was high.

The primary aim of this study is to examine the effect of managerial empowerment on employees’ adaptive performance. Failures of empowerment practices also suggest the need to study the boundary conditions under which managerial empowerment can facilitate adaptive performance.

As the nature of work is changing, employees’ adaptive performance (employees’ ability to work creatively, learn new skills, and adapt to diverse social contexts and new environments) becomes a prominent factor that helps organizations attain their objectives. Previous research has mainly focused on individual differences as predictors of adaptive performance. In contrast, the role of managerial variables in promoting adaptive performance has been overlooked.

Key words: supervisor support, organizational change, adaptation strategy