The Effect of Empowering Leadership on Work Engagement and Boredom at Work: A Multilevel Study

Background: The main objective of the current study was to investigate a multilevel model of empowering leadership, job demands, job resources, workplace boredom and work engagement. Specifically, this research examines the direct effects of empowering leadership on job demands and resources (i.e., social support and emotional demands), followed by exploring the direct effects of these specific job demands and resources on workplace boredom and work engagement. We also examine the mediational relationships between empowering leadership and workplace boredom via job demands and the mediational relationships between empowering leadership and work engagement via job resources by using the job demands–resources (JD-R) model. We argued that empowering leadership as an important indicator to improve employees’ work engagement and diminish workplace boredom by creating more resources and reducing demands at work. Methods: The current study involved 392 employees from 63 workgroups in an oil and gas organization in Malaysia. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) and a quantitative (multilevel study) cross-sectional approach was employed. Results: Results indicated that empowering leadership had a positive relationship with social support, and a negative relationship with emotional demands, and empowering leadership was also positively related to employees’ work engagement mediated by social support, and it was negatively related to workplace boredom mediated by emotional demands. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a workgroup level empowering leadership plays an important role as a predictor to working conditions (i.e., social support and emotional demands) and work outcomes (i.e., workplace boredom and work engagement). Received: 22 November 2024 / Accepted: 21 February 2024 / Published: 06 March 2025