Leader empowering and upper echelons decision‐making: How and when does top managers' empowering leadership promote decision‐making speed and comprehensiveness in public organizations?

The efficiency of decision‐making in public organizations is a key area of interest for public administration scholars. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this study examines how top managers' empowering leadership affects decision‐making speed and comprehensiveness in public organizations. Through a three‐wave questionnaire survey involving 1149 TMT members from 133 public organizations in China, we tested the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses. Our findings reveal that top manager empowering leadership positively and indirectly influences decision‐making speed and comprehensiveness in public organizations, and through its effects on TMT behavioral integration. Furthermore, TMT work style similarity and TMT cognitive diversity can enhance and weaken the mediating relationships, respectively.