Exploring the pathways to career success: Analyzing the influence of empowering leadership, self-efficacy, and organizational commitment

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Empowering leadership is essential for employee career success as it encourages skill development and facilitates career advancement. The absence of empowering leadership may significantly hinder employee career success within organizations. Thus, this study investigates the potential mediator roles of organizational commitment, self-efficacy, and competence for performance in the relationship between empowering leadership and career success.METHODS: By employing a quantitative approach, this study examines the proposed model and hypotheses in the coal mining companies in Indonesia. The data are collected from 123 employees working in the coal mining operations in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, and it is analyzed using SmartPLS 3.3.3 of partial least squares structural equation modeling.FINDINGS: The results showed that empowering leadership positively and significantly predicts organizational commitment (β = 0.706, t-statistic = 20.182), self-efficacy (β = 0.478, t-statistic = 5.308), performance competence (β = 0.593, t-statistic = 10.561), and career success (β = 0.387, t-statistic = 3.301). However, self-efficacy (β = 0.124, t-statistic = 1.068) and performance competence (β = -0.009, t-statistic = 0.097) have no impact on career success. Organizational commitment (β = 0.253, t-statistic = 4.218) is also discovered to mediate the relationship between empowering leadership and career success.CONCLUSION: Empowering leadership plays a crucial role in guiding employees toward career success by fostering a strong sense of organizational commitment. This study explores the mediating roles of organizational commitment, self-efficacy, and performance competence, offering insights into how empowering leadership influences career outcomes. The findings advance existing theory by clarifying that while self-efficacy and performance competence are shaped by empowering leadership, they do not directly predict career success. Instead, organizational commitment emerges as the key mediator in this relationship. From a practical perspective, the results highlight the need for organizations to promote empowering leadership by training supervisors to build autonomy and trust. This leadership approach enhances employees’ emotional attachment to the organization, thereby supporting their career development. Aligning career advancement initiatives with empowering practices can enhance employee motivation and long-term success.