Authentic leadership, psychological empowerment, and employee work engagement: a reflective-formative higher-order perspective

Purpose This study investigates the relationship between authentic leadership and employee work engagement, focusing on the mediating role of psychological empowerment among frontline employees in Ghana’s Food and Beverage (F&B) industry. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a descriptive time-lagged research design to capture temporal relationships among the variables. Data were collected from 315 non-managerial staff across 25 food and beverage establishments in Ghana at three separate intervals: authentic leadership at Time 1, psychological empowerment at Time 2, and employee work engagement at Time 3. Participants were selected using simple random sampling, and data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Both psychological empowerment and employee work engagement were modeled as reflective–formative second-order constructs. Findings The study found that authentic leadership positively and significantly relates to both psychological empowerment and employee work engagement. Also, the study’s findings revealed that psychological empowerment significantly and positively predicts employee work engagement. Further, psychological empowerment served as a partial mediator in the relationship between authentic leadership and employee work engagement. Originality/value This study advances leadership research by applying a reflective–formative second-order modeling approach to examine psychological empowerment as the mediating mechanism linking authentic leadership to employee work engagement in Ghana’s (F&B) sector—an underexplored context characterized by high-pressure service demands and resource constraints. It provides new insights into the mechanisms through which leadership style influences employee outcomes in frontline service environments.