Employee engagement: interpersonal leadership predictors and identification

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated that employee engagement is related to positive work outcomes, such as high performance and commitment (Hallberg & Schaufeli, 2006; Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002). Though employee engagement has been investigated in a wide variety of studies, little research has investigated the role of leadership as a predictor. The purpose of the present study was to introduce a framework to explain the relationship between interpersonal leadership characteristics and employee engagement. Based on this framework, it was hypothesized that leadership characteristics (transformational leadership, interpersonal justice, and informational justice) will predict employee engagement indirectly through the effects of organizational identification. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test this hypothesis. Alternative models testing direct effects were also examined. Results are based on responses from 430 working adults from locations across the United States and Canada. Results partially supported the framework, showing that interpersonal leadership characteristics significantly predicted organizational identification and engagement. However, the results did not support mediation, as the best fitting model was the fully direct model where leadership and identification are both directly related to engagement. These findings are further discussed, along with implications, practical applications, and future research directions.