The influence of leadership on work engagement mediated by job crafting

Orientation: Work engagement specific leadership styles, and the willingness to allow autonomous behaviour (viz. job crafting) are essential to foster positive employee outcomes. Research purpose: The study investigates the effect of leadership on an employee’s likelihood to initiate changes to the work environment (viz. job crafting) and how these changes hypothetically contribute to work engagement. Motivation for the study: A paucity of studies focuses on leadership and the nexus thereof with job crafting as mediator towards fostering positive employee outcomes in the South African context. Research approach/design and method: A quantitative cross-sectional research design was implemented by means of a questionnaire. Primary data were collected from 155 participants (N = 155) with at least 2 years of work experience. Statistical analysis included structural equation (direct effects) and mediation modelling (indirect effect) to ascertain the mediating role of job crafting. Main findings: The research study concluded that both leadership styles statistically significantly contributed to job crafting. Self-leadership statistically significantly contributed to work engagement. While empowering leadership did not directly yield a statistically significant effect on work engagement. Job crafting was found to be a statistically significant mediator that mediates the nexus between leadership styles and work engagement. Practical/managerial implications: Results presented emphasised the value of self-leadership in developing a proactive workforce. Moreover, empowering leadership should be investigated further. Job crafting is crucial for empowering leadership to improve work engagement. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the corpus of knowledge regarding the nexus between leadership styles, job crafting, and work engagement.