The Effects of Hotel Supervisor’s Empowering Leadership on Job Engagement: The Dual Meditating Effect of Core Self-evaluations and Affective Commitment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance research on the newly developed construct of respectful engagement (RE) (Carmeli et al., 2015), which focuses on positive interrelating behaviors characterized by respect in the organizational context. Further, this study aims to examine whether RE was associated with task performance and affective organizational commitment, and whether employee job engagement mediated these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using the self-reported measures and online survey method, data were collected from 185 employees working in one of the world’s largest hosiery firms located in the eastern part of Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling and multiple regressions were used to test the proposed conceptual model. Findings RE had significant positive effects on task performance and affective commitment. The effect of RE on affective commitment was stronger than it was on task performance. Moreover, job engagement significantly mediated the effects of RE on task performance and affective commitment. Research limitations/implications This study provides empirical evidence that RE enhances job engagement of employees by improving their levels of effort, enthusiasm and pride and concentration in work roles. Consequently, the enhanced level of job engagement leads employees to demonstrate better task performance and increased affective commitment with the organization. Practical implications Managers can institutionalize RE by applying strategies suggested by (Dutton, 2003) that focus on conveying presence, being genuine, communicating affirmation, effective listening and supportive communication. Training programs around these strategies can help managers to achieve this goal. Furthermore, in their day-to-day performance discussions, managers should follow the above strategies that could open further avenues for RE at the workplace. Managers can also allocate some weight to employees’ RE as part of their performance appraisals. The use of rewards would encourage employees to adopt RE as a norm desired by the organization. Originality/value This study extends research on the new developed construct of RE by focusing on task performance and affective commitment as its key outcomes. Furthermore, this study is the first to introduce job engagement as mediator in the relationship of RE with task performance and affective commitment. Another important aspect of this study is that its model has been tested on the data collected from Pakistan, which is an underrepresented geographical region in the management literature.

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A Person-Centered Perspective on the Combined Effects of Global and Specific Levels of Job Engagement

Group & Organization Management ◽

10.1177/1059601119899182 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 45 (4) ◽

pp. 556-594

Author(s):

Nicolas Gillet ◽

Alexandre J. S. Morin ◽

Christine Jeoffrion ◽

Evelyne Fouquereau

Keyword(s):

Emotional Exhaustion ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Affective Commitment ◽

Latent Profile Analysis ◽

Profile Analysis ◽

Job Engagement ◽

Normative Commitment ◽

Task Variety ◽

Organizational Tenure ◽

Task Significance

This study examines how the different dimensions of job engagement combine within different profiles of workers ( n = 264). This research also documents the relations between the identified job engagement profiles, demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, working time, and organizational tenure), job characteristics (work autonomy, task variety, task significance, task identity, and feedback), attitudes (affective and normative commitment), and psychological health (emotional exhaustion and ill-being). Latent profile analysis revealed four profiles of employees defined based on their global and specific (physical, emotional, and cognitive) job engagement levels: Globally Disengaged, Globally Engaged, Globally but not Emotionally Engaged, and Moderately Engaged. Employees’ perceptions of task variety and feedback shared statistically significant relations with their likelihood of membership into all latent profiles. Profiles were finally showed to be meaningfully related to employees’ levels of affective commitment, normative commitment, emotional exhaustion, and ill-being.

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