The effect of authentic leadership on job engagement

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among authentic leadership, job engagement, and procedural justice. Specifically, this study investigated the influence of authentic leadership on procedural justice and job engagement that was partially mediated by procedural justice. In addition, this study examined moderating effect of positive psychological capital on the relationship between authentic leadership and procedural justice and the effect of power distance on the relationship between procedural justice and job engagement. Data were collected from 300 Korean employees who were working in various organization via online survey, and 286 data were used for analysis, eliminating unreliable responses. The findings are as follows: First, there were positive relationships among authentic leadership, job engagement, and procedural justice. Second, the results of structural equaition analysis showed strong support for the proposed model, and the result of bootstrapping analysis supported that the effect of authentic leadership on job engagement is partially mediated by the procedural justice. Third, the results of hierarchial analysis showed that positive psychological capital moderated the relationship between authentic leadership and procedural justice, but there was no moderating effect of power distance on the relationship between procedural justice and job engagement. Finally, implications and limitations of this study with the direction for future research were discussed on the basis of the results.