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There is growing interest in the role of leaders fostering employees to take initiative, embrace risk, stimulate innovation and cope with uncertainty ([69] Spreitzer, 1995). Additionally, recent work on shared or distributed leadership emphasizes the importance of leaders empowering followers and accepting mutual influence to facilitate performance (e.g. [33] Gronn, 2000). The empowerment of employees is vital for organizational effectiveness. There is also a growing body of work that demonstrates the importance of trust in the leader as a mediator of leadership effects on followers. Research on transactional leadership and transformational leadership, however, has not examined the role of empowerment and trust in the leader on positive outcomes (e.g. in-role performance of followers and satisfaction with the leader) associated with leadership. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a concurrent analysis of the mediating effects of empowerment and trust in the leader on the relationship between transformational leadership and two outcomes (i.e. in-role performance of followers as rated by the leader and satisfaction with the leader).
Transformational leadership and trust in the leader
Leaders need to be trusted by their followers because trust is the mortar that binds the follower to the leader ([59] Nanus, 1989). Trust in the leader correlates positively with various outcomes such as organizational citizenship behaviors, performance, and satisfaction (e.g. [41] Jung and Avolio, 2000; [63] Pillai et al. , 1999). It is suggested that trust is a vital antecedent of satisfaction with the leader because both stem from affective states (e.g. admiration of the leader) and cognitive states (e.g. the leader is held in high esteem because of capabilities or attributes) rather than from observed behaviors of the leader ([23] Conger et al. , 2000).
Trust can be defined as a willingness to depend on another party ([56] Mayer et al. , 1995) as well as an expectation that the other party will reciprocate if one cooperates. Perceived ability ([24] Cook and Wall, 1980) or competence is essential to trust in organizational leader-follower relationships because followers are unlikely to develop trust in their leader unless they believe the leader is capable of fulfilling the leadership role ([79] Whitener et al. , 1998). Trust also stems from an individual's confidence in another party's intentions and motives towards oneself and...