The impact of differentiated empowering leadership on employees’ depression: moderation of employees’ envy and gender

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effect of differentiated empowering leadership on employees’ depression. Using the behavioral theory of depression, this study further explores the simultaneous moderation of gender and employees’ envy on the relationship between such leadership and employees’ depression. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using two surveys conducted with a time lag of one week. In Time 1, data on differentiated empowering leadership and employees’ envy were collected. After a week, data on employees’ depression were collected. Model testing was conducted using data on a sample of 420 employees from 87 departments in 27 service sector organizations in Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modeling technique in Mplus. Findings: Results indicate that perceived differentiated empowering leadership positively affects employees’ depression. In addition, this positive effect is further moderated by employees’ envy and gender simultaneously, such that this effect is weakest among the male individuals who feel low envy, whereas, for highly envious females, this effect is strongest. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of differentiated empowering leadership on employees’ depression along with the moderation of employees’ envy and gender. Furthermore, this study provides some policy implications based on its findings to decrease employees’ depression.