Employee empowerment leading to flexible role orientation: a disposition-based contingency framework

Abstract

The paper investigates the effect of certain employee empowerment initiatives viz. participative decision making and job autonomy, in the development of flexible role orientation (FRO), which represents adoption of a broader perspective while defining one's job elements. Additionally, the role of psychological ownership and individual dispositions was also probed in the aforementioned relationship by testing a moderated mediated contingency framework. The hypothesised relationships were supported by empirical evidence obtained across three field studies conducted in service based organisations in India. Psychological ownership mediated the linkage between empowerment and FRO, whereas internal locus of control and role breadth self-efficacy acted as moderators.