What’s wrong with different empowerment? The effect of differentiated empowering leadership on employee proactive service

Differentiated empowering leadership is common in organizations; however, its effect on employee proactive customer service performance remains less understood. Drawing on social comparison theory, this study proposes a multilevel model for how and when differentiated empowering leadership affects employee proactive customer service performance. The study, based on a sample of 228 employees from 77 teams in China, shows a negative relationship between differentiated empowering leadership and employee proactive customer service performance through employee organization-based self-esteem. This indirect relationship is moderated by empowering leadership and employee prosocial motivation. Specifically, the influence of differentiated empowering leadership on employee organization-based self-esteem is more negative when employees receive low empowering leadership, and the relationship between employee organization-based self-esteem and proactive customer service performance is more positive for employees with high prosocial motivation. These findings extend previous knowledge on differentiated empowering leadership and provide practical insights for hotel managers.