Influencing upward: subordinates' responses to leaders' (un)awareness of their empowerment expectations

This study investigated when subordinates engage in upward influence behaviors to voice their opinions on empowerment practices to their leaders. Data were collected from 114 pairs of leader-subordinate dyads at a manufacturing firm. Based on cross-level polynomial regression and response surface analyses, the present study found that the less the leaders were aware of subordinates' empowerment expectations, the more the subordinates engaged in upward influence behaviors, namely rational persuasion and inspirational appeals. Moreover, high leader-subordinate task interdependence and subordinate self-efficacy as moderators amplified the (in)congruent relationships. The results contribute to empowerment literature by providing valuable insight into the bottom-up influence in the empowerment process.