Leadership for employee engagement in a global organisation

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the leadership styles of first line managers and employee engagement in a global organisation. Leadership has significant impact on employee engagement, especially in a global context that is complex and uncertain. Organisations require new leadership strategies for managing human capital. This is because the business environment globally is marred by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The impact of globalisation, digitalization, technological advancement, and intense competition requires effective leadership for employee engagement. Despite the plethora of research on the impact of leadership on employee engagement, research on contemporary leadership approaches in global organisations is not extensive. Organisations rely more on employees for productivity and performance hence employee engagement is used as a strategy to gain competitive advantage. Organisations are operating in an era where they should create an environment conducive for high productivity through effective leadership and engaged employees. First line managers are responsible for employee engagement but should ensure that they employ suitable leadership styles that promote employee engagement. Most scholars have explored the relationship between transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, servant and authentic leadership styles, and employee engagement. However, these leadership styles may not be suitable for the contemporary business operating environment in relation to employee engagement. It appears that the relationship between agile, adaptive and multiplier leadership styles and employee engagement has attracted less attention in research despite its importance to leadership theory and global organisations. Moreover, existential thinking has limited research in leadership theory in terms of its ii influence on employee engagement. This study investigates the relationship between leadership styles of first line managers and employee engagement with a potential moderating effect of leadership existential thinking in a global pump manufacturing organisation. The study hypothesizes the relationship between agile, adaptive and multiplier leadership styles and employee engagement. It tests the relationships between these leadership styles moderated by existential thinking. This cross-sectional quantitative study is grounded on the positivism philosophy using a deductive approach. A survey method was used to collect primary data from 753 first line managers in 52 countries in a global pump manufacturing organisation. The data was analysed through statistical techniques that include descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modelling (SmartPLS-SEM). The sample consists of first line managers with different titles including manager, supervisor, and team leader. The findings of this study show that agile leadership is considered the dominant leadership style for first line managers in this global organisation. Statistically significant relationships were found between adaptive leadership, agile leadership and existential thinking, and employee engagement. The relationship between multiplier leadership and employee engagement was statistically insignificant. The moderating effect of existential thinking was statistically significant for the relationship between adaptive leadership and employee engagement. Statistically insignificant relationships were found between the moderating effect of agile leadership and multiplier leadership, and employee engagement. In conclusion, this study contributes to the existing leadership literature in the context of global organisations. While caution is necessary on attempts to generalise the study’s findings, the first line managers in global organisations may benefit from using agile and adaptive leadership styles. This study demonstrates the relationship between agile, adaptive and multiplier leadership styles and employee engagement. It also iii demonstrates the moderating effect of existential thinking on the relationship between adaptive leadership and employee engagement. It recommends a leadership framework for employee engagement suitable for the contemporary business operating environment. In respect of practical contribution, this study proposes an improved Twenty-Sixty-Twenty (TST) model shifting the proportions to the right so that a greater percentage of employees become more engaged.