Value alignment and job resources as predictors of employee engagement: Evidence from university lecturers in Indonesia

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractHigher education institutions face mounting pressure to sustain lecturer engagement amid increasing workloads and constrained resources, yet the mechanisms underlying engagement formation remain insufficiently understood. This study aims to investigate how job resources and value alignment predict employee engagement among university lecturers in Indonesia, examining the mediating roles of employee well-being and affective commitment. A cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was conducted in November 2025 with 272 full-time lecturers from 77 higher education institutions across five regions of Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Nusa Tenggara–Bali, and Sulawesi) using an online structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using PLS-SEM via WarpPLS 8.0 with 999 bootstrap resamples. Work–life balance and job autonomy significantly predict employee well-being. Person–organization fit strongly predicts affective commitment; perceived organizational support does not have an effect. Affective commitment is the dominant predictor of engagement (R² = 0.631); employee well-being does not retain direct significance in the full model. Only the indirect path of person–organization fit → affective commitment → engagement is significant (β = 0.290, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.194, 0.386]), constituting complementary partial mediation. Servant leadership moderation is not supported. Robustness checks with demographic controls confirm the pattern of significant predictors is unchanged. These findings indicate that engagement is predicted more decisively by value alignment and emotional attachment than by exchange-based support, though generalization is bounded by the convenience sampling design.