<p>Although existing research suggests that empowering leadership has a positive impact on organizations and their subordinates, we challenge this conventional view by drawing on Social Information Processing Theory and Attribution Theory. We reveal the dual nature of empowering leadership—its effectiveness depends on subordinates' different interpretations of the leader's empowering behaviors. Specifically, if subordinates perceive the leader's empowering behavior as self-interest, this leadership style will be positively correlated with subordinates' emotional exhaustion, potentially exacerbating workplace deviant behavior. Conversely, if subordinates perceive the leader's empowerment as driven by altruism motives, empowering leadership will be positively associated with leader–member exchange, helping to reduce workplace deviant behavior. Through an experimental study, an experience sampling method, and a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we tested these hypotheses using both linear and non-linear approaches. Overall, this study discusses the theoretical and practical implications, highlighting both the benefits and drawbacks of empowering leadership and emphasizing the importance of considering subordinates' attributions in the leadership process.</p>