The effects of empowering leadership on psychological well-being and job engagement The mediating role of psychological capital uri icon

abstract

  • PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of empowering leadership on employees psychological well-being (PWB) and job engagement. This study also examines the mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on survey data (n=285) from employees in eight large-sized firms in South Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the convergent validity of the construct measures. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data.FindingsThe authors found that empowering leadership influenced job engagement both directly and indirectly through PsyCap. Employees PsyCap fully mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and employees PWB, while partially mediating the relationship between empowering leadership and job engagement.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study to examine the effects of empowering leadership behaviors of leaders on both PWB and PsyCap, which are positive psychological resources of employees. The study has also provided empirical evidence for the importance of PsyCap, which plays a positive role in the ability of employees to manage their overall feelings in achievement situations and in employees engagement in the workplace.

published proceedings

  • LEADERSHIP & ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL

author list (cited authors)

  • Park, J. G., Kim, J. S., Yoon, S. W., & Joo, B.

citation count

  • 153

complete list of authors

  • Park, Jong Gyu||Kim, Jeong Sik||Yoon, Seung Won||Joo, Baek-Kyoo

publication date

  • May 2017