Employee empowerment is a pivotal construct of high-involvement management. Empowerment provides a fertile ground for the positive development of employees and organizations. When exercised correctly, empowerment can advance an employee's perceived serf-control, accommodation and acceptance of organizational environment. Work ethics and motivation of employees can also be improved. Empowerment can also minimize the hurdles inherent in a management hierarchy, increase the velocity of organizational response to external stimuli, and advance operational flexibility and efficiency. As a result, the possibility of releasing the potential of employees can be largely increased.Empowerment can drive organizational effectiveness and is critical to maintaining the continuous competitive advantage of an organization. Literature shows that empowering behavior is one of a variety of trusting behaviors. Leaders have used this behavior to help subordinates improve their competence and confidence. Very few empirical researchers explore the relationship between leaders'trust in subordinates, and different empowering behaviors in different contexts, such as organizational context and individual characteristics.This study explores the direct effect of cognition- and affect-based trusts on three empowering behaviors, and the moderating effect of power distance and organizational system control on the relationships. We conduct a survey with a dyadic design of leader-and-subordinate. Data are collected from 454 leader-subordinate teams in 21 companies. We test the structural validity of the scales of our survey instrument by conducting the conformational factor analysis. Structural equation modeling is adopted to examine the direct influence of trust in subordinates on a leader's empowering behaviors. Hierarchical regression analyses are used to examine the moderating effects of a leader's power distance and organizational system control on the causal relationships.Our analysis results show that cognition- and affect-based trust in subordinates can help increase participative decision making,informing and coaching empowerment behaviors for leaders. Cognition-based trust in subordinates had the strongest effect on participative decision. Affect-based trust has stronger influence on coaching and informing empowerment behaviors than cognition-based trust. As for the moderating effect, the hierarchical regression analysis shows that power distance and system control have significant moderating effects on the causal relationships between cognition-based trust and three empowering behaviors. However, system control has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between affect-based trust and three empowering behaviors. In summary, the current study can help clarify the relationships between different forms of trust and empowering behaviors.Leaders' trust in subordinates can lead to varying empowering behaviors. A leader's power distance and organizational system control also need to be considered in order to advance the empowering behaviors of leaders.%本研究探讨了领导对于下属的认知信任和情感信任对不同维度授权行为的影响作用,以及权力距离感和组织制度控制的调节效应.结构方程模型分析的结果表明,领导对于下属的认知信任和情感信任均有助于增加领导的决策参与、信息分享和帮助指导的授权行为,并且,领导的下属认知信任对决策参与的影响作用最大.情感信任对帮助指导和信息分享的影响作用较大.层级回归分析的结果显示,领导的权力距离感和制度控制均对下属认知信任与三维度的授权行为之间的关系具有显著的调节作用.但是,只有制度控制对下属情感信任与三维度授权行为之间的关系调节作用显著.
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