Psychological empowerment and individual performance: the mediating effect of intrapreneurial behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend the existing literature on the relationship between psychological empowerment and individual performance (IP) through the mediating role of intrapreneurial behaviour (IB). Therefore, the empowerment theory (ET) and psychological entrepreneurship theory (PET) were integrated to nurture the IP of medium enterprises (MEs) production/operations managers by analyzing the mediating influence of IB on the psychological empowerment-IP relationship. Design/methodology/approach Survey method was engaged by means of self-administered questionnaire. Data were collected from a sample of 355 MEs production/operations managers and analysed with partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings According to the results, Psychological empowerment (PE) has a significant direct relationship with both IB and IP. Equally, IB has a positive significant impact on IP. Moreover, the mediating influence of IB on the psychological empowerment-IP relationship was established. Practical implications The result implies that MEs can stimulate the IP of production/operations managers by encouraging IB through psychological empowerment-IP relationship. Therefore, the psychological empowerment-IP relationship will manifest better when IB is invigorated among production/operations managers. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the mediating influence of IB on the psychological empowerment-IP relationship, which revealed a significant contribution to both entrepreneurship and organizational behaviour literature. The IB literature is relatively lacking, particularly among developing countries and in particular Nigeria.