The Role of Leadership Styles in Enhancing Employee Engagement: An Empirical Study in the Information Technology Industry

Employee engagement has become a prominent construct of organizational performance, especially in the fast, competitive environment of the information technology industry. The empirical study questioned the bearing of different styles of leadership, including transformational style, transactional style, and servant style, on the employee engagement level. Through the use of a quantitative methodological framework, the data were collected with the assistance of a sample size consisting of 120 employees employed in various IT enterprises. The analysis indicated that employee engagement has the maximum positive influence from transformational leadership, and servant leadership shares the same impact, but the most identifiable impact is from transactional leadership. All these findings support the assumption that those leaders who inspire, support, and publicly acknowledge their staff are much more competent in maintaining engagement as compared to leaders whose leadership style is mostly task-focused. As a result, the research contributes to the literature at the crossroads of leadership theory and engagement studies and provides practical recommendations to IT managers who would like to establish well-motivated and committed workforces.