Power distance orientation alleviates the beneficial effects of empowering leadership on actors’ work engagement via negative affect and sleep quality

Abstract Although many studies have explored the benefits of empowering leadership for followers, the beneficial effect of such behavior for actors who demonstrate empowering leadership has been overlooked. Applying conservation of resources theory, we propose and test a model that determines why and when empowering leadership benefits actors. We use an experience sampling survey to examine the effect of empowering leadership on actors’ daily work engagement. In particular, we focus on the moderating role of power distance orientation and the mediating roles of negative affect and sleep quality, which operate sequentially. The results based on responses from 160 supervisors in two Chinese organizations indicated that empowering leadership in the morning was negatively related to negative affect in the afternoon and positively related to sleep quality at night and next-day work engagement. The strength of this beneficial effect was moderated by power distance orientation, such that supervisors with a high degree of power distance orientation obtained fewer benefits from empowering leadership than those with a low degree of power distance orientation. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the leadership, affect, sleep, power distance, and conservation of resources literatures are discussed.