Does authentic leadership promote higher job satisfaction in public versus private organizations? Exploring the role of vigor and engagement

Background

Several studies have suggested that leaders showing high levels of authentic leadership increase workers' overall job satisfaction, which is composed of different aspects with some distinctions among them. Furthermore, the implication of affective and motivational variables, such as vigor and engagement at work, respectively, have not been jointly considered for analysing the differences and similarities between public and private organizations. Thus, this study aims to analyze whether vigor at work and engagement at work play a mediating role between authentic leadership and different aspects of job satisfaction, considering both public and private organizations, to propose a trans-organizational model.

Method

In this cross-sectional and cross-sectoral study, 1029 workers in private (n = 619) and public (n = 410) organizations from Spain participated completing a questionnaire.

Results

Structural equation modelling was used to perform a multigroup mediation analysis (public versus private organizations) in which the invariance between groups was previously explored. The model showed a good fit to the data in which authentic leadership affected the dimensions of job satisfaction both directly and indirectly (through vigor at work and engagement). However, authentic leadership had a greater positive effect on vigor at work for private organizations; whereas work engagement was not significantly related to the job satisfaction dimension related to legal aspects for public organizations.

Conclusion

The vigor at work and work engagement were important variables to explain the authentic leadership-job satisfaction relationship in both private and public organizations. Nevertheless, the relationship between work engagement and the dimensions of job satisfaction was different for both organizations.

Overwhelmed by Emotional Job Demands in High Vigor Days! Its Detrimental Effects on Daily Recovery from Work among Health-Care Workers

The objective of this study is twofold: first, to analyze whether the daily level of energy in terms of vigor at work could explain the way in which workers psychologically detach from their work, relax, practice challenging activities, and have the feeling of having control over their leisure time when arriving home. Second, to check if the daily emotional job demands could hinder that relationship, reversing the positive effect of vigor in recovery. For this purpose, a multilevel study with a diary methodology was designed. In total, 94 nurses from various hospital and primary care centers in Madrid and Basque Country (Spain) participated in this study. They completed daily questionnaires twice a day (in the afternoon after work and at night before going to bed) for five consecutive workdays from Monday to Friday (N = 94*5 = 470). The results revealed that on days that vigor at work was high, nurses experienced more psychological detachment, relaxation, feelings of mastery, and time control at home. Moreover, on days that emotional job demands were high, vigor was more negatively related to psychological detachment and time control at home. Additionally, vigor was more positively related to all recovery experiences at home in days that emotional demands were low. Therefore, daily vigor can act as an energy resource that helps the worker to recover. However, this effect can occur in situations in which stressors are not present in high intensity. These results have clear practical implications for both health organizations and workers.