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The Interactive Effect of Authentic Leadership and Leader Competency on Followers’ Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement

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Abstract

The effect of authentic leadership and leader competency on employee job performance has received growing attention in the past decades; however, few studies have simultaneously integrated these two leadership perspectives. We have thus developed a mediated moderation model to test the interactive effect of authentic leadership and competency on followers’ job performance through work engagement. Based on a sample of 248 subordinate–supervisor pairs, hierarchical regression analyses reveal that (1) authentic leadership positively relates to followers’ task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB); (2) leader competency moderates the relationship between authentic leadership and OCB; (3) and followers’ work engagement mediates the main effect of authentic leadership and the interactive effect of authentic leadership and competency on followers’ task performance and OCB. All the three results are consistent with our hypotheses.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 1509093); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71102028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Feng Wei

  2. Department of Business Administration, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

    Yi Li

  3. Department of Business Administration, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Yi Zhang

  4. Department of Business Administration, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

    Shubo Liu

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Wei, F., Li, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. The Interactive Effect of Authentic Leadership and Leader Competency on Followers’ Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement. J Bus Ethics 153, 763–773 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3379-0

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