With the recognition that traditional bureaucratic structures are less likely to respond effectively to volatile and complex business environments, the movement toward structural empowerment has been touted as one of the most significant changes in modern organizations. However, research to date has advanced opposing viewpoints on whether or not structural empowerment will psychologically empower managers and enhance group functioning. The aim of my dissertation is to provide a more nuanced view of the downstream consequences of how managers navigate structural empowerment through the lens of evolutionary psychology. I developed a comprehensive model of how evolved motives for social influence--prestige and dominance--and situational constraints--resource scarcity and outcome interdependence--guide managers' cognition and behavior in the context of structural empowerment. To test my arguments, I utilized experimental (Study 1) and field survey (Study 2) methodologies. My dissertation contributes to the literature in three important ways: 1) I complement the predominant focus on the link between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment by providing accounts for an unintended consequence of structural empowerment, namely entitled managers; 2) my focus on managers' external resource acquisition and sharing as outcomes of structural empowerment expands conceptual boundaries of the role of leadership in the literature; and 3) my dissertation provides an example of how insights from evolutionary psychology can be leveraged to gain a better understanding of why managers do what they do within contemporary organizational structures.
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