Do the qualities of transformational leadership influence employees’ job engagement? A survey of the Indian power sector

Abstract

The pandemic has put a toll on businesses across the globe, especially power generation as an essential service. The role of leadership is exemplary in driving job engagement in the power sector. The study aims to explore the impact of a leader’s inspirational motivation and individualized consideration on employee job engagement in the Indian power sector. This study is quantitative exploratory research. Using a validated questionnaire, 444 survey responses were taken from executives of major Indian electricity generation utilities. Inspirational motivation and individualized consideration were taken as independent variables, while employee engagement and its components were taken as dependent variables. Statistical methods of simple and multiple correlations were performed using SPSS version 25. According to the findings, the components of transformational leadership have a positive and significant impact on employee engagement (r = 0.463) and its facets of vigor (r = 0.425), dedication (r = 0.455), and absorption (r = 0.267), respectively. In addition, the finding outlines that transformational leaders propagate their high power and enthusiasm to their workers through inspirational motivation to increase their job engagement. The paper also highlights the role of a leader as a coach and mentor through individualized consideration to cater to followers’ need for growth and achievement. These findings expand the literature on leadership and employee engagement in the Indian power sector.