Antecedents of empowering leadership: The roles of subordinate performance and supervisor–subordinate guanxi

In a multi-source field study and three scenario-based experimental studies, we provide evidence that subordinate performance and supervisor–subordinate guanxi are antecedents to empowering leadership. Supervisor–subordinate guanxi moderates the relationship between subordinate performance and empowering leadership. Supervisors' trust in subordinates is one of the potential mediating mechanisms. Together, we show that subordinate performance and supervisor–subordinate guanxi are important for empowering leadership within Chinese cultural context, which enriches our knowledge of empowering leadership.