A daily diary study on leader consideration, positive affect and work engagement: the moderating role of person-supervisor fit

Purpose This study aims to investigate a moderated mediation model in which leader consideration indirectly enhances employee work engagement by triggering positive affect, with person-supervisor fit acting as a boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach Using a daily diary method, data were collected from 129 workers in the Netherlands. Participants completed an initial questionnaire assessing person-supervisor fit, followed by daily questionnaires over ten consecutive working days, yielding 936 daily observations. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel analyses in SPSS. Findings Results indicate that positive affect fully mediates the relationship between leader consideration and work engagement at both the within- and between-person levels. Moreover, person-supervisor fit moderates this relationship at the between-person level, strengthening the positive effect. Originality/value This study contributes to the scarce insights into daily leadership dynamics. Furthermore, it uniquely advances the understanding of leadership effectiveness by being among the first to examine person-supervisor fit as a boundary condition for the affective impact of leader consideration.