How engaging leaders foster employees' work engagement

Abstract

The current study investigates the mediating role of job resources (JRs) (i.e. person-–ob fit, value congruence, alignment, job control, use of skills, participation in decision-making, coworker support and performance feedback) and basic psychological need satisfaction at work (i.e. autonomy, relatedness, competence and meaningfulness) in the relationship between engaging leadership (EL) (i.e. inspiring, strengthening, empowering and connecting) and work engagement. Structural equation analysis was used to test the mediation hypotheses, using a two-wave longitudinal design and an Indonesian sample of 412 employees from an agribusiness state-owned company. The results show that EL at baseline 2017 (T1) predicts T1–T2 increase in work engagement (WE) directly, as well as indirectly through T1 JRs, and T1–T2 increase in basic psychological need satisfaction. This research extends the job demands-resources (JD-R) model by showing the important role of ELfor fostering WE through increasing JRs and satisfying basic psychological needs at work.