The mechanism underlying the relationship between empowering leadership and work passion

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of empowering leadership (EL) on work passion by developing a moderated mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation (IM) in the relationship between EL and work passion, as well as the moderating effect of role clarity (RC) in influencing the mediation.

METHODS:

Data were obtained from a sample of 515 workers, who work in 17 five-star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh.

RESULTS:

Findings reveal that IM fully mediates the positive relationship between EL and work passion. It also concluded that RC moderated the mediated relationship between EL and work passion via IM, with individuals with higher RC benefiting more from the mediation.

CONCLUSION:

The findings have far-reaching implications for both employees and leaders. Furthermore, they add to our understanding of self-determination theory and cognitive evaluation theory in terms of consolidating employees’ work passion.

Keywords

Empowering leadership Intrinsic motivation Role clarity Work passion

Mervat Elsaied earned her PHD from Ain Shams University in 2011. She has been Associate professor in management department of AL- Azhar University, Egypt. Her academic interests include HRM, Organizational behavior and marketing. Her primary teaching interests include HRM, Marketing, Production management and organizational behavior.

Abbreviations

EL:

Empowering leadership

IM:

Intrinsic motivation

RC:

Role clarity

WP:

Work passion

1 Introduction

Vecchio et al. [1] assert that to induce empowerment, it is substantial to redesign the relationship between the leader and his followers by embracing empowerment leadership (EL). Leaders who adopt the EL style are sometimes called “distinguished leaders”; They encourage and enable their followers to contribute fully towards the achievement of organizational goals [2, 3]. Empowering leaders provide their subordinates with information about goals, allowing them to value their work and thus enhance the meaningfulness [4, 5]. Additionally, by using motivating employees to take part greater and via awarding them autonomy, empowering leaders can decorate their feelings of affect and self-determination [4, 5]. Martin et al. [6] contend that the EL behaviour characteristic facilitates competence and autonomy among members [7]. EL confirms permitting others to guide themselves [1, 8]. More in particular, a few EL’s representative behaviors contain inducing independent movement, deliberating barriers as problems, self-improvement, opportunity thinking in preference to performing thinking and utilize of participative goal placing [8, 9]. EL can be defined as a shared power that increases the intrinsic motivation of followers among members (IM) [10]. Beyond research supposed that empowered teams have better power and autonomy to carry out responsibilities; whilst those duties are more meaningful and impactful, this makes them have high IM [11]. IM refers to “the inherent tendency to seek out challenges and novelty, to expand and exercise one’s capacities, to explore, and to learn” [12,p:70]. Ambrose and Kulik [13] argue that IM can be defined as a set of inspiring work practices, which identify the direction, shape, attempt and duration of work [14]. Particulary, Amabile [15] counseled that people have IM after they discover interest, enjoyment, or personal venture in their task [16]. IM embraces personal choice to put effort right into a undertaking without being compelled by way of external factors and engage in it for the pleasure and satisfaction, which arises from doing this task [17]. As IM has a significant impact on work-related behaviors, it is taken into consideration a precious perception in studying institutions [18].

The more active form of work passion is harmonious passion [19, 20]. Work passion can be described as “an individual’s persistent, emotionally, positive, meaning-based, status of a job well- being stemming from reoccurring cognitive and affective appraisals of various job and organizational situations that result in consistent, constructive work intentions and behaviors” [21, P: 310]. Work passion is defined as a strong inclination toward work activities that people enjoy and in which they invest time and energy [22, 23]. Passionate people want to be involved in the work they are passionate about, which leads to a consistent pattern of behavior [24]. Work passion has been discovered to be vital by both organizational scholars and practitioners [25]. Work passion, for example, may enhance job performance [26], organizational citizenship behavior [27], well-being [28], work engagement, and job satisfaction [29].

There are two major gaps in the work passion literature that need further investigation to better understand this construct and its relationship to other constructs in organizations. Firstly, however, the growing interest in the passion for work, studies in this field remain in its early stage of development, and our knowledge of the passion for work is scarce [30]. Compared with our understanding of the consequences of work passion, our understanding of the antecedents of work passion is particularly limited, and it is not clear how the organization develops and promotes work passion [31, 32]. Second, Studies that focused on work passion were conducted primarily in Western cultures (for example, [32]) and research in Eastern cultures delayed activity in the lives of people around the world [22], it is important to examine the phenomenon of work passion in other cultures as well. Cross-cultural studies will advance the theory of work passion by providing information on whether the relationships between passion and work outcome are generalizable or culture-specific [23, 33]. The present study, therefore, seeks to fill these gaps by investigating the impact of EL on work passion by developing a moderated mediation model. This model focuses on the mediating effect of IM, which underpins the link between EL and work passion, and the moderating contribution of role clarity (RC) in influencing the mediation. In other words, this study attempts to explore how EL enhances employees’ IM, further affecting their work passion under the condition of RC. Hence, the present study answers the call from Forest et al. [34] for furthering research examining supervisory behaviors that enhance work passion.

The current study hopes to make several important theoretical and empirical contributions by providing practical support for these arguments. To begin, this study sheds light on the relationship between EL and work passion, whereas previous studies looked at several antecedents of work passion, such as organizational characteristics and job characteristics [35]; leader’s work passion [36]; organizational climate [33], However, none of them investigate the relationship between EL and work passion. Second, by examining the mediating role of the potential intervening variable, this study extends previous research by revealing the underlying mechanisms responsible for the influence of leadership on work passion. Furthermore, previous research has highlighted the mediating role of several constructs, such as employee effect [35]; emotional contagion [36]; job satisfaction [29], However, none of them look into the role of IM as a mediator. Third, previous studies confirmed the moderating effect of several constructs such as leader employee goal content congruence [36], the meaningfulness of work and person-organization fit [26], fit at work [37], however, little of them examines the moderating role of RC. Thus, this study is from little, which try to investigate the moderating role of RC in the relationship between work passion and other constructs. Overall, it is the first one to combine EL, IM, RC, and work passion in one study. Since previous research has consistently identified several negative aspects of hospitality employment, such as the low-status nature of hospitality work, antisocial working hours, low job security, and low pay [38], This, in turn, contributes to high employee turnover rates. Employees with a high work passion preference are less likely to be depressed when confronted with difficulties at work [39]. Thus, the hospitality industry is best suited for the present study.

2 Theoretical background and hypotheses

2.1 The relationship between empowering leadership and work passion

EL highlights decision-making participation, collaboration enhancement, and information sharing [40]. Empowering leaders allow their followers to participate in decision-making and consult with them on major decisions that may affect their work, giving them more autonomy and removing unnecessary bureaucratic constraints [40]. This leads to higher levels of meaning [41]. Sebaie et al. [42] found that the Egyptian employees’ perceptions of EL behaviors were likely to positively affect psychological empowerment. Elsetouhi et al. [43] revealed that EL behaviors significantly impacted on employee voice behavior in an Egyptian context. Empowering leaders ensure that their followers align their goals with organizational goals, advise them on strategic decisions, rely on their ability to perform both strategic and task decisions, perform tasks in their own way, and follow the rules. and the rules are simple [44]. The main difference between EL and other types is that it removes subordinates’ feelings of helplessness by giving them complete autonomy [36, 45]. Bilgino&Yozgat [46] asserted that sparking leaders have a positive and significant influence on the subordinates’ work passion. Moreover, Mageau et al. [47] suggest that an autonomous –supportive social environment can enhance the emergence of harmonious passion [33].

Empowering leaders Provid their subordinates with autonomy, which somewhat accelerates the assimilation of tasks into the subordinate identity and increases their harmonious passion [48]. Furthermore, empowering leaders emphasize the significance of the work [44, 48]. When people realize that they are looking for common meaning and goals through clear processes that have intense leaders, they foster a harmonious passion for their work [22, 48].

Furthermore, empowering leaders esteem their subordinate’s autonomy [48, 49], and prefer to motivate their followers by sharing their power. With autonomous support, people feel liberated from bureaucratic constraints and are more likely to invest their energy in tasks that are truly important to them, resulting in work passion [22, 50]. Given the supportive, motivational, and power-sharing aspects in the conceptualization of Amundsen and Martinsen [51], it is reasonable to anticipate that EL positively affects work passion. Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed:

H1 : Empowering leadership is positively associated with work passion.

2.2 The mediating role of intrinsic motivation

Employees who are motivated are regarded as critical to the success of any organization [52], Self-determination theory [53] suggests that motivation (i.e., one’s energy, direction, and persistence of behavior) can result from intrinsic or extrinsic forces [54]. Ryan and Deci [12] regarded IM as an inherent proclivity to seek out new challenges in order to develop and apply personal competence to discover and learn [18, 55]. IM is deemed as a key motivator that affects learning, adaption, and competencies [53]. Employees who are intrinsically motivated are interested in their work and strive to find novel and effective ways to achieve success [55, 56].

Employees interested in their work, rooted in their beliefs and who find it a virtue to perform their functions to the best of their abilities, will find MI vital to getting a job done without the need for too many external motivations to improve performance [57]. IM is concerned with carrying out an activity for intrinsic satisfaction and enjoyment and interest in the task itself [53 , 59]. The motivational model assumes that empowering leaders improves the extent to which followers participate in decision making, feel more involved in their work experience, more news and challenges [8, 60]. This will, in turn, enhance their experience of IM [8, 61]. According to SDT, the satisfaction of the psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy is considered as nourishment to improve MI [8, 53].

Meng et al. [62] noted that employees who perceive EL feel competent and self-determined in their assigned tasks, thus improving their IM.

Yukl and Becker [63] suggest that empowered leaders seek to improve the motivation and performance of their followers by allowing them to participate in decision making. Houlfort et al. [64]; Liu et al. [50] discovered that IM was positively associated with harmonious passion, because when people derive spontaneous pleasure from doing their work, such IM is one source of the affective component of passion [22].

Employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs when they become intrinsically motivated to engage in tasks, according to SDT [20 , 24]. Previous research discovered positive relationships between job satisfaction, passion, and feelings of positive affect [20 , 24], indicating that passionate employees derive a lot of job satisfaction [65, 24].

In general, the present study uses the Cognitive Assessment Theory (CBT) mechanism [53] to test the mediating role played by IM in the relationship between LE and passion for work. According to the theory, leaders who consolidate autonomy and competence offer favorable, non-controlling feedback and recognize other perspectives that ensure high-quality associations with their subordinates, because through these mechanisms, these leaders enhance self-determination [59, 66]. Based on the above, we can expect instant messaging to completely mediate the relationship between EL and the passion for the job. Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed:

H2 . Intrinsic motivation fully mediates the relationship between empowerment leadership and work passion.

2.3 The moderating role of role clarity

The most significant interest in this model is the moderating role of RC in explaining the mediated relationship between EL and passion for work through IM. RC and role ambiguity are used interchangeably in research and are considered opposite ends of a continuum [67]. RC is widely perceived as a critical predictor of employee behavior [68]. RC refers to the extent to which employees believe they have clear guidance on roles and expected behaviors related to their job [69, 70]. In situations of high RC or low role ambiguity, employees understand what is expected of their job and know the means available to perform their duties. Conversely, in situations of low RC or high role ambiguity, people do not understand what is expected of them in their work and the processes they must employ to achieve the goal. The lack of RC is likely to inspire employees to believe they are the means available to perform their job duties. Conversely, in situations of low RC or high role ambiguity, employees do not understand what is expected of them in their work and do not determine the processes they must use to achieve the goal. Lack of RC is likely to inspire employees to believe they are powerless and to reduce their influence at work [55, 67].

Therefore, in situations where a person perceives low RC levels, his supervisor has potentially failed to play this vital role; therefore, this may be indicative of a poor supervisory report, in which the supervisor has provided inadequate feedback [67, 71]. Newman et al. [67] practically confirmed the potential moderator of RC for leadership types; argue that employees with a high RC are more likely to adapt their perceptions of leadership, which positively leads to promoting results in the workplace [72]. According to the theory of roles [73]; the institution should have a clear set of responsibilities for all positions in order to provide guidance on the expected job roles of subordinates; therefore, RC can moderate the positive effect of EL on the passion for work through IM. Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed:

H3 : RC moderates the strength of the mediated relationship between EL and work passion through IM such that the mediated relationship will be stronger for employees who realize higher RC, rather than lower.

In summary, the present study explains how and under what conditions EL is associated with work passion. It supposes that EL leads to work passion through IM. It further suggests that the indirect influence of EL on work passion through IM may vary according to an employee’s level of perceiving RC. Figure 1 depicts the proposed model, as follows:

Fig. 1

The proposed Model.

3 Method

3.1 Sample and procedure

To virtually validate the alleged assumptions, data was collected from employees working at 17 five-star hotels in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. This city is the most popular destination for visitors and has the largest number of five-star hotels in Egypt. The hotels were identified on the basis of a non-probability convenience sampling technique [74]; They were selected on the basis of previous collaboration and / or familiarity between the author and the management of these hotels [75].

The target population of this study was limited to five-star hotels only, as the employees of these properties are the most important part when it comes to providing quality services; this factor represents one of the most determinants of reputation [76]. The approval of the hotel management was requested for the realization of the study. 600 questionnaires were distributed to 17 hotels using a convenience sampling technique, 543 were returned; however, of those who returned, 28 were incomplete. Therefore, only 515 questionnaires were used or analyzed, representing a return rate of 85.83%.

Regarding ethical considerations, all respondents were volunteers; their anonymity was guaranteed; data was collected from workplace respondents within 2 months in 2018. 71.3%of respondents were between 20 and 40 years old; 32.6%received a university education and the majority of respondents, 46.8%, have resided in a hotel for more than 20 years. Attendees represented a variety of jobs, including front desk agents, drivers, waiters, door clerks, managers, booking agents, receptionists, chefs, and other common hospitality industry positions.

3.2 Questionnaire design and structure

Because this study was performed in Egypt, and because the measures were initially constructed in English, a standard translation and re-translation procedure were utilized to ensure equivalence of scales between the Arabic and English versions [77]. Since the present study adopted a self-reporting method, thus the results can be influenced by common method variance (CMV). To reduce this bias, this study following the recommendations of Podsakoff et al. [78]. Prior to testing, several precautions were taken. First, the items were sorted randomly to reduce the items’ associations. Second, some items were reverse- worded to guarantee that the respondents concentrate on answering questions and not to reduce the consistent motif effect. Third, the data were collected in two stages, the first stage involves collecting data about demographics, EL and IM; while the data about RC and work passion were obtained at the second stage. Moreover, Harman’s single factor test for Podsakoff & Organ [79] was utilized to conduct a post hoc comparison, in this statistical procedure; every variable is entered as a principal component factor, and the result of an un-rotated factor analysis should be less than 50 per cent. The results showed four factors in the model with the greatest covariance explained by one factor of 24.88 %per cent, which is less than 50 percent; these findings revealed that common method variance bias was not severe. Thus, inferences about correlational and causal relationships will not be inflated.

The questionnaires were constructed based on scales developed by Low et al. [80]; Vecchio et al. [1]; Rizzo et al. [81]; Baum and Locke [82]. It includes two parts: part one was informed consent, from which participants were to register and indicate their acceptance of taking part in the survey. Part two of the questionnaire had five sections: the first addresses the demographic variables; the second lists the EL items, the third lists the IM items; the fourth lists the items about RC items; the fifth part is about work passion. The first three items are demographic, while the remaining 25 items were rated on a five-point Likert scale. The Arabic version then pilot-tested, using 45 employees of the participating hotels, but who were not included in the final sample. Based on the feedback from the pilot-test, a few items were reworded to ensure clarity.

EL: was assessed with the 10-item scale developed by Vecchio et al. [1], Sample items included “Advises me to look for the opportunities in the problems I face”. The 10-items scores were averaged to create a total scale score.

IM: was measured with a 4-item scale developed by Low et al. [80]; Sample items included “When I do work well, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment”, “I feel a great sense of personal satisfaction when I do my job well”. The 4-items scores were averaged to create a total scale score.

RC: was assessed with a 6- item “role ambiguity/role clarity” scale developed by Rizzo et al. [81]. Sample items included “I feel certain about how much authority I have”. The 6-item scores were averaged to create a total scale score.

Work passion: was assessed with the 5-item scale developed by Baum and Locke [82] (. Sample items include” I accomplish a lot because I love to work hard”. The 5-items scores were averaged to create a total scale score.

4 Results

4.1 Descriptive statistics and correlations

Table 1 displays the means, standard deviations, construct correlations, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The mean values for all constructs in the study range between 2.79 and 2.96, with standard deviations ranging between 0.709 and 0.836. According to the zero-order Pearson correlations, EL has a positive and significant relationship with IM (R = 0.604, P 0.01), RC (R = 0.227, P < 0.01) and work passion (R = 0.220, P < 0.01); implying that when employees perceive their leaders to be empowering, they are more likely to be have IM, understand their expected roles and become passionate about their work. Furthermore, IM has a positive and significant relationship with RC (B = 0.132, P < 0.01) and passion for work (R = 0.325, P < 0.01), meaning that when employees have IM, they are more likely to understand their expected roles and become passionate about their work. In addition, RC has a positive and significant relationship with the passion for work (R = 0.116, P < 0.01), this result means that when employees understand their expected roles, they are more likely to be passionate about their work. Therefore, these results provide the prerequisite for the analysis of the links between the relevant constructs. As such, the alpha coefficients for the four scales vary between 0.709 and 0.836 and satisfy Nunnally’s criterion [83] of 0.70, suggesting good reliability of the scales.

Table 1
Means, Standard Deviations, Coefficient Alphas, and Intercorrelations between variables in the present study

Constructs Alpha Cronbach M SD 1 2 3 4

1. EL 0.836 2.96 0.589 1 0.604^ 0.227^ 0.220^

2. IM 0.709 2.81 0.825 1 0.132^ 0.325^

3. RC 0.728 2.80 0.655 1 0.116^

4. WP 0.791 2.79 0.821 1

Constructs	Alpha Cronbach	M	SD	1	2	3	4
1. EL	0.836	2.96	0.589	1	0.604^**	0.227^**	0.220^**
2. IM	0.709	2.81	0.825		1	0.132^**	0.325^**
3. RC	0.728	2.80	0.655			1	0.116^**
4. WP	0.791	2.79	0.821				1

Notes: ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01.

4.2 Hypothesis testing

The bootstrapping method developed by Preacher and Hayes [84] was used to validate hypotheses H1 and H2. This method allows us to test the indirect effects of each mediator simultaneously while controlling for the constructs in the model to compare the impacts of the mediators with one another [84]. Furthermore, it overcomes the limitations of Baron and Kenny’s [84] technique, particularly the problem of statistical power [85]. Moreover, it is also beneficial for controlling for the effects of type 1 error rates [86]. Furthermore, the bootstrapped method has also been found to yield more accurate mediation findings [84, 86]. The mediator is considered significant if the 95%confidence interval (CI) for the indirect effect estimate does not imply zero between the low level confidence interval (LLCI) and the upper level confidence interval (ULCI) [84]. The results in Table 2 were constructed on 5000 samples and corrected for bias, showing that the total effect of EL on passion for work is positive and significant (B = 0.1536; SE = 0.0342; T = 4, 4982; P < 0.000). Therefore, H1 was supported.

Table 2
The findings for the mediating pathways

Paths Coefficient SE T P LLCI ULCI

Total effect of EL on work passion (C path) 0.1536 0.0342 4.4982 0.0000 0.0865 0.2207

EL to IM (a path) 0.3393 0.0167 20.2787 0.0000 0.3064 0.3721

IM on work passion (b path) 0.3759 0.0558 6.7351 0.0000 0.2662 0.4855

Effect of EL on work passion via IM (c1 path) 0.0261 0.0386 0.6755 0.4996 –0.0498 0.1020

Indirect effect of EL on work passion 0.1275 0.0194 – – 0.0915 0.1683

Effect SE Z P

Sobel 0.1275 0.0200 6.3848 0.0000

Paths	Coefficient	SE	T	P	LLCI	ULCI
Total effect of EL on work passion (C path)	0.1536	0.0342	4.4982	0.0000	0.0865	0.2207
EL to IM (a path)	0.3393	0.0167	20.2787	0.0000	0.3064	0.3721
IM on work passion (b path)	0.3759	0.0558	6.7351	0.0000	0.2662	0.4855
Effect of EL on work passion via IM (c1 path)	0.0261	0.0386	0.6755	0.4996	–0.0498	0.1020
Indirect effect of EL on work passion	0.1275	0.0194	–	–	0.0915	0.1683
	Effect	SE	Z	P
Sobel	0.1275	0.0200	6.3848	0.0000

Notes: ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01.

Furthermore, the mediation model results showed that the impact of EL on IM was positive and significant (B = 0.3393; SE = 0.0167; T = 20.2787; P 0.000), as was the effect of IM on work passion (B = 0.3759; SE = 0.0558; T = 6.7351; P 0.000). Table 3 also revealed that the effect of EL on work passion via IM (C1 path) was not significant (B = 0.0261; SE = 0.0386; T = 0.6755; P = 0.4996). Because of the findings, it was assumed that IM fully mediated the relationship between EL and work passion. Furthermore, the Sobel test (Z = 6.3848, P 0.01) and the 95 percent confidence interval (LLCI = 0.0915, ULCI = 0.1683, not containing zero) provide additional evidence for the mediating effect. As a result, H2 received support.

Table 3

Regression Results for testing Moderation Effect of RC.

Factors and statistics	IM Model 1	work passion Model 2
EL×RC	0.454^**	–
IM×RC	–	0.325^**
F	132.847^**	60.517^**
R²	0.206	0.106
Adjusted R²	0.204	0.104

Notes: ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01.

To validate the moderated mediation predicted H3, the product terms EL, IM, and RC were standardized to avoid multicollinearity [87]. Four conditions must be met, according to Muller et al. [88] and Preacher et al. [89], in order to establish a moderated mediation model. Table 2 reveal that:

EL has a significant and positive effect on work passion (B = 0.1536, P 0.01, Table 4).

IM has a significant and positive effect on work passion (B = 0.3759, P 0.01, Table 4).

Work passion is positively and significantly affected by the interaction term of IM and RC (B = 0.325, P 0.01, Model 2), and IM is positively and significantly affected by the interaction term of EL and RC (B = 0.454, P 0.01, Model 1).

Table 4

Results for Conditional Indirect Effect of EL on work passion via IM across level of RC

Moderator	levels	Effect Size	SE	T	P	LLCI	ULCI
RC	Low (M- 1SD)	–0.0006	0.0507	–0.0119	0.9905	–0.1002	0.0990
	M	0.1123	0.0354	3.1750	0.0016	0.0428	0.1817
	High (M + 1SD)	0.2252	0.0481	4.6767	0.0000	0.1306	0.3179

Notes: n = 536, boostrap sample size = 5000; Lower Limit; CL: confidence interval, Ul: Upper Limit.

These three conditions support a moderated mediation precondition [88]. To further validate the moderated mediation model, condition 4 was investigated to see if there is a different conditional indirect effect of EL on work passion via IM at low and high levels of RC [89]. As a result, in this study, RC values one standard deviation above and below the mean were substituted into a regression equation. The conditional indirect effect of EL was stronger and more significant in the high RC (effect size = 0.2252, P 0.01, 95 percent bootstrap CLs from 0.1306 to 0.3197, not containing zero), but weaker and not significant in the low RC (effect size = –0.0006, ns; 95 %bootstrap CLs from –0.1002 to 0.0990 containing zero). Hence, when RC was higher, EL was positively related to work passion via IM. H3 was supported when taken as a whole.

5 Discussion

The current study aims to create a moderated mediation model to investigate the psychological mechanism underlying the relationship between EL and work passion. Overall, the current study’s findings provide strong support for the hypothesized model and contribute to the existing EL, IM, RC, and work passion research fields.

According to the findings, EL has a positive and significant relationship with work passion, implying that when employees perceive their leaders to be empowering, they are more likely to be passionate about their work. This finding is consistent with Robertson and Barling’s [90] finding that transformational leadership positively predicted employees’ harmonious Passion, EL in essence, has an impact on employees’ work environments and is capable of both providing substantial working resources and encouraging motivational behaviors [91]. EL encourages employees to participate in decision-making and removes certain organizational constraints, allowing them to have relatively high decision-making power and autonomy, as well as make timely decisions and actions [91]. Furthermore, the findings revealed that IM fully mediated the relationship between EL and work passion, implying that empowering leaders foster IM in employees, which increases their work passion. This finding is consistent with the findings of Deci et al. [92], who concluded that IM mediates the relationship between authentic leaders and work engagement. Furthermore, previous research has shown that supportive leadership is positively related to a salesperson’s IM [93].

Saks [94] found that the leader’s behavior motivates and satisfies his subordinates. EL, as a type of relational leadership, values power sharing, which can boost people’s motivation and involvement in their work [95]. IM is based on positively valued experiences gained directly from job tasks [53, 96]. These positive feelings serve to excite, involve, commit, and energize a person’s work [97].

Furthermore, this study claimed that RC moderated the mediated relationship between EL and work passion via IM, with the mediation being stronger for people with higher RC and weaker for people with lower RC. This finding supports Wang et al. [98]’s conclusion that RC is the boundary condition for this indirect relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and employee voice behavior. A lack of RC is likely to lead to employees believing they are powerless and reducing their impact at work [98]. Furthermore, people cannot gain effective psychological empowerment if they do not understand their responsibilities and how to fulfil them [99]. Individuals who do not perceive RC are unsure what types of responsibilities are desired, even when they establish good relationships with their supervisors [98].

6 Theoretical implications

In three ways, this study adds to the literature on leadership and work passion. For starters, it establishes a link between the literature on EL and work passion, responding to Forest et al. [34]’s call for more research into supervisory behaviors that could improve work passion. This emphasizes the critical roles of leaders in increasing employees’ work passion. These findings support the early hypothesis that leadership has a positive relationship with employees’ harmonious passion [90]. This study backs up the findings of Robertson and Barling [90], who discovered that transformational leadership predicts employees’ harmonious passion. Notably, the current study is the first to demonstrate why EL, which has received no attention in the literature of work passion, plays a critical role in enhancing work passion.

Second, this study contributes to the literature by introducing the self-determination theory of IM as a mediating variable, which is novel in comparison to previous studies. Previous research has shown that variables such as empathy in this relationship [100] and walking [101] can act as moderators. This study proposed an additional psychological mechanism, namely that IM differs from the variables listed above. As a result, this study contributes to a better understanding of the psychological mechanism by providing a new perspective on previous research. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to look into the role of IM in mediating the relationship between leadership and work passion.

Third, the study discovered a critical factor that mitigates the impact of EL on work passion. This moderation differs from the moderating effects investigated in previous studies in the EL literature. Previous research on the moderating role of psychological empowerment [102], task interdependence and organizational politics [103], power distance and collectivism [104] has focused on the various employee tendencies. Employees’ different orientations have rarely been included in these boundary conditions. However, the current study shows that EL can increase their subordinates’ work passion when they have more IM and RC. The findings emphasize, in particular, that the RC moderates the strength of the mediated relationship between EL and work passion via IM, such that the mediated relationship is stronger among people who perceive high levels of RC than those who perceive low levels. By employing and testing a moderated mediation model, we were able to gain a better understanding of the relationship between EL and work passion.

7 Managerial implications

These findings also suggest some managerial implications. To begin, EL is an important leadership style for increasing work passion. As a result, it promotes empowering behaviors such as encouraging independent action, fostering opportunistic thinking, and encouraging cooperative effort. Furthermore, organizations can provide specific training to supervisors to help them learn how to empower employees. A suitable training program can be used by the company to demonstrate empowering behaviors. Second, this research shows that IM is an important psychological state for increasing work passion. Leaders should try to cultivate IM by encouraging employees to reconsider reward, making every employee feel capable, encouraging cooperation and competition, assisting employees in trusting themselves, and providing accurate and authentic performance feedback.

Finally, the findings indicate a moderated mediation effect, in which employees who experience high levels of RC embrace the empowering effect more sensitively, motivating them to become passionate about their work. This means that participating company managers should improve RC through clear processes, consistency, and competency.

8 Limitations and future research

Although the findings of this study are encouraging, some caution is in order. The first limitation is related to the population sampled; the data were collected from 17 hotels in Egypt, and thus the findings may have been influenced by values and cultural context, such as traditionality, power distance, and collectivism [105,106, 105,106]. Future research should replicate this study in other vocational settings and different cultures to achieve generalizability of results [106, 107]. Second, while this study only looked at the effect of EL on work passion at the individual level, evidence suggests that we can aggregate empowering at the team level [91]. Furthermore, cross-level influence can occur at any time, and different levels can influence each other. Cross-level and multi-level analyses should be used in future studies to thoroughly investigate the relationship between EL and work passion [91]. The third limitation is that the research was conducted in a cross-sectional design. Although the current findings are consistent with the proposed hypotheses, the longitudinal design may yield additional insights. As a result, the findings may not provide a complete elucidation of theoretical foundations. Future studies should use a longitudinal or empirical research design to better establish the direction of the link suggested in this model [106]. Furthermore, future research would benefit from the inclusion of other antecedents that may influence work passion, such as authentic leadership, social work leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership and ethical leadership. Fourth, while the current study investigated EL, IM, RC, and work passion from the perspective of employees, future studies should attempt to identify the behaviors of their leaders, so that employee perceptions and manager behaviors are matched [108]. Despite these potential limitations, this study adds to the body of knowledge on EL, IM, RC, and work passion. By investigating this, it was discovered that in Eastern cultures, the IM is a relevant mediating variable and the RC is a relevant moderating variable. This study gathered all of the data from the same source. Despite the fact that the test revealed that common method bias was not a major issue, it would be preferable to refine the results if this had an impact on the results. In the future research, we will collect data from various sources [109].

9 Conclusion

The current study adds to our understanding of how and under what conditions EL influences work passion by investigating the mediating and moderating roles of IM and RC. The findings show that EL has a direct impact on work passion. Furthermore, the findings indicate that EL has an indirect relationship with work passion via IM. Depending on the level of RC, the strength of the mediation between EL and work passion via IM varies. When people perceive relatively high levels of RC, the indirect effect of EL on work passion via IM is strong. The current study sheds some light on, and generates additional interest in, the impact of EL on organizational environments.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The author has no acknowledgments.

Appendix Empowering leadership items

Encourages me to find solutions to my problems without his/her direct input.

Urges me to assume responsibilities on my own.

Advises me to solve problems when they pop up without always getting a stamp of approval.

Encourages me to search for solutions without supervision.

Urges me to think of problems as opportunities rather than obstacles.

Advises me to look for the opportunities in the problems I face.

Encourages me to view unsuccessful performance as a chance to learn.

Urges me to work as a team with the other employees who work at the organization.

Encourages me to work together with other employees who work at the organization.

Advises me to coordinate my efforts with the other employees who work at the organization.

Intrinsic motivation items

When I do work well, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

I feel a great sense of personal satisfaction, when I do my job well.

When I perform my job well, it contributes to my personal growth and development

My job increases my feeling of self-esteem.

Role clarity items

I feel certain about how much authority I have.

I have a clear, planned goals and objectives for my job.

I know that I have divided my time properly.

I know exactly what my responsibilities are

I know exactly what is expected of me

Explanation is clear of what has to be done

Work passion items

I derive most of my life satisfaction from working hard.

I love to work hard.

I look forward to returning to work when I am away from it.

I accomplish a lot because I love to work hard.

Sometimes I wish that I could be working harder when I am not.

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