Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 2, 2025

The Collective Trust Game: An Online Group Adaptation of the Trust Game Based on the HoneyComb Paradigm
Published on: October 20, 2022
Toxic Leadership and Empowering Leadership: Relations with Work Motivation
Carla Santarém Semedo1, Ana Salvador2, Nuno Rebelo Dos Santos1
1Research Centre in Education and Psychology (CIEP-UÉ), Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal.
Purpose:
The present study aims to verify the association between two opposing models of leadership, toxic and empowering, and the different dimensions of work motivation.
Participants And Methods:
Three questionnaires (Toxic Leadership Scale, Empowering Leadership Questionnaire, and Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale) were applied to 408 workers. Cluster analysis was performed.
Results:
Cluster analysis produced eight clusters based on the different configurations of leadership dimensions, namely coercive, centralizer, false paternalistic, toxic role model, coach, narcissistic-empowering, toxic, and empowering. Those clusters relate differently to work motivation dimensions.
Conclusion:
The profiles with higher scores in empowering leadership dimensions are more generally related to autonomous regulation (identified and intrinsic work motivation). The profiles with higher toxic leadership dimensions are more related to amotivation and controlled regulation (extrinsic work motivation). One profile stood out: the narcissistic-empowering profile that combines high scores in narcissistic leadership and empowering leadership dimensions. This profile unexpectedly relates significantly to autonomous regulation. This study contributed to the knowledge of the work motivation dimensions concerning empowerment and toxic leadership. Therefore, it contributes to deepening the nomological network of the concepts and providing inputs to human resource processes suitable to improving the organizational results and the workers' quality of life.
Related Concept Videos
Secondary Motives: Power Motivation and Achievement Motivation
Power motivation is characterized by the desire to influence, control, or have an impact on others. It is shaped by an individual's experiences, social environment, and cultural context. People with high power motivation are...
Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory
Autonomy is the need to feel in control of one's actions and decisions. For example, a student who chooses their research topic is likely to be more engaged and motivated than one who...
Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation
The theory differentiates between...
Obedience
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Social Loafing

