The Impact of Empowering Leadership on Flourishing at Work: A Systematic Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38035/dijemss.v7i3.6052Keywords:
Empowering Leadership, Flourishing, WorkAbstract
This systematic review examines the impact of empowering leadership on employee flourishing across diverse organisational settings. This study's method is a systematic review that analyses 20 articles. Drawing on evidence from recent empirical studies, the review highlights that empowering leadership characterised by autonomy-supportive behaviours, trust, and shared decision-making significantly enhances psychological empowerment and contributes to higher levels of well-being, engagement, meaningfulness, and positive workplace functioning. Future studies should focus on the intricacies and long-term effects of empowered leadership, ensuring that businesses can deliberately harness leadership behaviours that promote both employee well-being and corporate success.
References
Abbasian, Z., Shirbagi, N., & Hassani, M. (2025). The Role of Proactive Personality in Promoting Innovative Work Behavior and Creativity: A Study of the Mediation of Intrinsic Motivation and Thriving at Work. In University of Kurdistan (Vol. 13, Issue 1).
Ahmed, T., Yang, C., Hongjuan, Y., & Mahmood, S. (2022). The Impact of Empowering Leadership on Job Performance of Higher Education Institutions Employees: Mediating Role of Goal Clarity and Self-Efficacy. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, Volume 15, 677–694. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S357083
Alotaibi, S. M., Amin, M., & Winterton, J. (2020). Does emotional intelligence and empowering leadership affect psychological empowerment and work engagement? Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 41(8), 971–991. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-07-2020-0313
Balootbangan, A. A., Masoudian, P., & Farhadinia, M. (2025). The Effectiveness of Psychological Empowerment Educational Intervention on Personal Flourishing and Flow at Work of School Administrators and Teachers. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN MANAGEMENT, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.22034/jom.2025.2050909.1315
Butt, T. H., Abid, G., Arya, B., & Farooqi, S. (2020). Employee energy and subjective well-being: a moderated mediation model. The Service Industries Journal, 40(1–2), 133–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2018.1563072
Cebral-Loureda, M., Tamés-Muñoz, E., & Hernández-Baqueiro, A. (2022). The Fertility of a Concept: A Bibliometric Review of Human Flourishing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(5), 2586. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052586
Fikri, K., Astarina, I., Rifa’i, A., Setianingsih, R., Abunawas, A., & Alviani, D. (2024). Empowerment Leadership: Cultivating Cultural Intelligence and Its Effects on Job Flourishing. Jurnal Aplikasi Manajemen, 22(3), 601–614. https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.jam.2024.022.03.01
Giolito, V. J., Liden, R. C., van Dierendonck, D., & Cheung, G. W. (2021). Servant Leadership Influencing Store-Level Profit: The Mediating Effect of Employee Flourishing. Journal of Business Ethics, 172(3), 503–524. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04509-1
Goraya, M. A. S., Yaqub, M. Z., Khan, M. A., Akram, M. S., & Alofaysan, H. (2024). Transforming performance: how agility, response, resilience, and support shape success in digital strategies. Information Technology & People. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-05-2024-0592
Iqbal, J., Aukhoon, M. A., & Parray, Z. A. (2025). Thriving minds, thriving workplaces: unleashing creativity through psychological wellbeing and psychological capital. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 12(4), 921–938. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOEPP-01-2024-0025
J. H. Coun, M., Peters, P., Blomme, R. J., & Schaveling, J. (2022). ‘To empower or not to empower, that’s the question’. Using an empowerment process approach to explain employees’ workplace proactivity. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(14), 2829–2855. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1879204
Jiang, X., & Wei, Y. (2024). Linking servant leadership to followers’ thriving at work: self-determination theory perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384110
Joo, B.-K. (Brian), Yoon, S. K., & Galbraith, D. (2023). The effects of organizational trust and empowering leadership on group conflict: psychological safety as a mediator. Organization Management Journal, 20(1), 4–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/OMJ-07-2021-1308
Khan, H. S., Salman Chughtai, M., & Zhiqiang, M. (2025). Empowering leadership and occupational burnout: the moderated mediation model. BMC Psychology, 13(1), 378. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02492-8
Kim, D., & Vandenberghe, C. (2021). Ethical leadership and organizational commitment: the dual perspective of social exchange and empowerment. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 42(6), 976–987. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-11-2020-0479
Kim, M., & Beehr, T. A. (2021). The power of empowering leadership: allowing and encouraging followers to take charge of their own jobs. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(9), 1865–1898. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1657166
Kleynhans, D. J., Heyns, M. M., Stander, M. W., & de Beer, L. T. (2022). Authentic Leadership, Trust (in the Leader), and Flourishing: Does Precariousness Matter? Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.798759
Kumar, R. S., & Patrick, H. A. (2022). Mediating effect of psychological empowerment in the relationship between positive leadership behaviour and flourishing. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 32(2–3), 264–286. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBG.2022.127369
Lin, M., Ling, Q., Zhang, L., Cui, X., & Zhang, Z. (2022). The effects of manager role stress on job thriving of both employees and managers through empowering leadership. Tourism Management, 92, 104545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2022.104545
Malhotre, S. A., & Vasrani, N. R. (2024). Cultivating Organizational Well-Being: The Impact of Empowering Leadership and Psychological Strengths on Trust and Flourishing. European Journal of Emerging Economics and Management, 1(01), 10–29.
Peethambaran, M., & Naim, M. F. (2023). Connecting the dots: linking empowering leadership, employee work passion, and flourishing-at-work. Industrial and Commercial Training, 55(4), 544–557. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-10-2022-0079
Rothmann, S., & Wissing, M. P. (2013). Well-being research in South Africa. From Happiness to Flourishing at Work: A Southern African Perspective, 123–151.
Rusydi, M. (2025). Empowering leadership and employee voice in Makassar’s state-owned enterprises. Acta Commercii, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v25i1.1415
Simula, B. L. (2023). Use the science of flourishing to increase your well-being. Harvard Business Review. Https://Hbr. Org/2023/02/Use-the-Science-of-Flourishing-to-Increase-Your-Well-Being.
Singh, A. (2023). Linking empowering leadership with workplace proactivity: the mediating role of psychological safety and knowledge sharing. Evidence-Based HRM: A Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship, 11(2), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-07-2021-0140
Suleman, Q., Syed, M. A., Shehzad, S., Hussain, I., Khattak, A. Z., Khan, I. U., Amjid, M., & Khan, I. (2021). Leadership empowering behaviour as a predictor of employees’ psychological well-being: Evidence from a cross-sectional study among secondary school teachers in Kohat Division, Pakistan. PLOS ONE, 16(7), e0254576. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254576
Syamsudin, N., Eliyana, A., Nurdin, N., Sudrajat, A., Giyanto, B., Emur, A. P., & Zahar, M. (2022). Are job satisfaction and role breadth self-efficacy the links to proactive work behavior? Heliyon, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08710
van Dierendonck, D., & Lam, H. (2023). Interventions to enhance eudaemonic psychological well‐being: A meta‐analytic review with Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well‐being. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 15(2), 594–610. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12398
Varga, P. J., Kelly, C. R., & Jacobi, C. J. (2024). Aesthetic flourishing: Scientists’ experiences of beauty, wonder, and awe as indicators of higher wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 14(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v14i3.3015
Verma, R., Sekar, S., & Mukhopadhyay, S. (2025). Unlocking flourishing at workplace: An integrative review and framework. Applied Psychology, 74(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12591
Verma, S., & Singh, V. (2022). Impact of artificial intelligence-enabled job characteristics and perceived substitution crisis on innovative work behavior of employees from high-tech firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107215
Yam, K. C., Reynolds, S. J., Zhang, P., & Su, R. (2022). The Unintended Consequences of Empowering Leadership: Increased Deviance for Some Followers. Journal of Business Ethics, 181(3), 683–700. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04917-x
Ye, L., Li, Y., & Zhang, N. (2025). The impact of autonomy-supportive organizational environments on employees’ emotions and creative performance: A self-determination theory perspective. PLOS One, 20(5), e0322184. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0322184
Zhang, Z., Ni, G., Lin, H., Li, Z., & Zhou, Z. (2023). Linking empowering leadership to work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior in the construction context: a self-determination perspective. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 16(2), 232–257. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-10-2021-0288
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Eko Riyanto, Hania Aminah, Mardi Mardi

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish their manuscripts in this journal agree to the following conditions:
- The copyright on each article belongs to the author(s).
- The author acknowledges that the Dinasti International Journal of Education Management and Social Science (DIJEMSS) has the right to be the first to publish with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
- Authors can submit articles separately, arrange for the non-exclusive distribution of manuscripts that have been published in this journal into other versions (e.g., sent to the author's institutional repository, publication into books, etc.), by acknowledging that the manuscript has been published for the first time in the Dinasti International Journal of Education Management and Social Science (DIJEMSS).









































