MAKASSAR, Indonesia April 18 2026 /IOP/-What makes an employee truly engaged at work? Not just present, not just productive, but genuinely energized, committed, and absorbed in what they do every day?
A growing body of research in organizational psychology highlights the role of leadership and internal psychological resources in fostering employee engagement. This relationship is examined in the study “The Effect of Authentic Leadership and Psychological Capital on Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction,” published in Leadership & Organization Development Journal by Emerald Publishing (2020). Conducted by Hillman Wirawan, Muhammad Jufri, and Abdul Saman in a state-owned enterprise in Eastern Indonesia—a context embedded in the socio-cultural values of Bugis society—the study employed a cross-sectional design to examine the interplay between authentic leadership, psychological capital, job satisfaction, and work engagement. The findings indicate that authentic leadership and psychological capital are positively associated with work engagement, with job satisfaction functioning as a significant mediating mechanism.
Two Kinds of Resources
The study draws on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, which proposes that work engagement is powered by two types of resources. The first is job resources: external support from the organization, such as supervisory guidance and positive leadership behaviors. The second is personal resources: internal psychological strengths that employees carry within themselves.
The researchers examined two specific resources: authentic leadership as a job resource, and Psychological Capital (PsyCap) as a personal resource. Authentic leaders are those who demonstrate self-awareness, moral integrity, transparency in relationships, and balanced decision-making. PsyCap, meanwhile, consists of four positive mental states: hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism.
What the Study Found
Involving 307 employees collected across three separate time points to ensure data quality, the study found that both authentic leadership and PsyCap contributed to work engagement, but through different mechanisms.
PsyCap had a direct effect on work engagement. Employees with high psychological resources were immediately more engaged, independent of any other factor. Authentic leadership, however, did not directly boost engagement. Instead, its effect worked entirely through job satisfaction: authentic leaders made employees feel respected, recognized, and satisfied, and that satisfaction then translated into stronger engagement.
Job satisfaction itself proved to be a powerful bridge. When employees felt genuinely satisfied with their work conditions, they became more vigorous, more dedicated, and more absorbed in their daily tasks.
Importantly, these findings held regardless of gender and were consistent within the Bugis cultural context of Eastern Indonesia, demonstrating that authenticity and positive psychological states can function across diverse local values.
Why This Matters: SDG 8
This research speaks directly to SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Work engagement is not a luxury metric. Engaged employees perform better, stay longer, and contribute more meaningfully to their organizations and communities. In Indonesia’s public and state-owned sectors, cultivating authentic leadership and employee PsyCap is a strategic investment in workforce quality and sustainable institutional performance. Organizations that train leaders to be genuine and design programs to build employees’ psychological resources are building the foundations of productive, dignified, and sustainable work environments.
Practical Takeaway
Organizations should not treat leadership development and psychological wellbeing as separate programs. They reinforce each other. Authentic leaders foster the job satisfaction that drives engagement, while PsyCap provides employees with the internal fuel to stay engaged even when demands are high.
Reference:
Wirawan H, Jufri M, Saman A (2020), “The effect of authentic leadership and psychological capital on work engagement: the mediating role of job satisfaction”. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 41 No. 8 pp. 1139–1154, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-10-2019-0433
Contact:
Hillman Wirawan
hillman@unhas.ac.id | Telp: +62 853-9812-0801
