Empowering leadership and trust on team learning behavior

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model for the relationship between learning behavior in groups and empowerment leadership using trust among group members as a specific context factor that influences the relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a quantitative survey that involves 78 working groups from various types of teams and diverse business fields in Indonesia. Data analysis was carried out at the group level, and, for the hypothesis testing, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used.FindingsThe empirical results of the testing show that empowerment leadership has a positive influence on learning behavior in groups, and trust among group members is proven to be a moderating variable that strengthens the influence of these variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe process of generalizing findings must be carried out carefully considering that the model testing carried out was in the context of specific groups and included the existence of common method bias risk.Originality/valueThis paper provides an understanding of the interaction between the presence of group leaders who have an empowerment leadership style and the existence of trust among group members that will encourage the emergence of learning behavior in groups. It contributes to the current literature by filling a gap from social information processing perspective. Individuals collectively will have attitudes and behavior based on information from coworkers while developing self-leadership that leads to sharing knowledge and sharing experience within the group.