Empower to Engage: Impact of Leader Empowering Behaviour on Employee Engagement: Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment among Employees working in the Sri Lankan Apparel Sector

Abstract

In today's complex and fast-paced workplaces, employee engagement is indispensable to an organisation's overall success, as it has a direct impact on organisational outcomes. Leader Empowering Behavior is a well-known leadership strategy for increasing employee engagement. Even with its proven advantages, little is known about the psychological empowerment by which empowered leadership raises engagement, especially in multicultural and quickly changing work environments. The impact of LEB and employee engagement is examined in this study via the mediation of psychological empowerment. Through the lens of social exchange theory, mediating effect of psychological empowerment on the impact of leader empowering behaviour on employee engagement was tested. Using sophisticated structural equation modeling through Smart PLS 4.0 and data from 297 employees in the apparel industry, results demonstrate that LEB significantly affects engagement directly and indirectly through increased psychological empowerment. In actuality, managers who foster cultures of independence and meaningful involvement provide their staff members a psychological boost that increases their level of engagement. These findings highlight the importance of leadership philosophies that go beyond conventional command and control structures by encouraging self-motivation and improving working conditions. By recognising psychological empowerment as a crucial mechanism connecting leadership behaviours to employee outcomes, the study adds to the body of knowledge on leadership and provides organisations looking to cultivate leaders who can effectively empower their people with useful advice. To improve theory and practice, future studies should look at these interactions over time and in a variety of cultural situations.