Basic psychological need satisfaction mediates the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement: A cross-national study

Abstract

The current study investigates the mediating role of basic psychological need for satisfaction at work (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, and competence) in the relationship between engaging leadership (i.e., inspiring, strengthening, empowering, and connecting) and work engagement. Also, we are proposing and testing an additional need for meaningfulness that plays a similar mediating role. Data were collected from two independent samples from Indonesia (n = 607 state-owned company employees) and Russia (n = 384 civil servants). Results of both samples confirmed that basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness, competence, and meaningfulness) mediated the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement. Multigroup analysis revealed that the parameters of the mediation model were invariant across both national samples, supporting the cross-national validity of the model. When the mediating role of the satisfaction of the need for meaningfulness was tested separately, this appeared only the case in the Russian and not in the Indonesian sample.