Effect of Digital Leadership on Career Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in Padang Startups

PurposeDrawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, the primary goal of this study is to conceptualise and empirically validate a theoretical framework that explains the process by which digital job resources influence the innovative work behaviour of technological professionals. Specifically, this study aims to examine the impact of digital job resources, especially digital training, and digital communication, on employee digital engagement. Furthermore, it investigates the influence of digital engagement on digital leadership and the effect of digital leadership on innovative work behaviour. Lastly, the study examines whether digital engagement and digital leadership serially mediate the relationship between digital job resources and innovative work behaviour.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from full-time technological professionals using multiple sampling techniques. A total of 307 samples were utilised for the final data analysis. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), employing SmartPLS 4.0, was used to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThe findings of this study emphasize that digital engagement and digital leadership are pivotal in mediating the impact of digital communication on technological professionals' innovative work behaviour. Specifically, our results show that digital communication significantly shapes the digital engagement of these professionals. Digital engagement, in turn, positively influences digital leadership, which then fosters technological professionals’ innovative work behaviour. Notably, both digital engagement and digital leadership serve as mechanisms that link digital communication and innovative work behaviour. Contrary to our initial expectations, the study finds that digital training neither directly affects digital engagement nor has an indirect effect on innovative work behaviour.Originality/valueThe present study is distinct in offering a theoretical framework outlining the steps through which digital resources influence technological professionals' digital engagement, digital leadership capabilities, and their innovative work behaviour. Prior studies have predominantly focused on antecedents of innovative work behaviour, with an emphasis on individual characteristics and organisational environmental factors. There is limited research exploring how, or even if, digital job resources – such as digital training and digital communication – affect employees’ innovative work behaviour. Additionally, the examination of the interrelationship between digital engagement and digital leadership is notably lacking in existing literature. Much of the research has instead probed the converse relationship: how leadership styles impact employees' engagement. Lastly, this research is among the pioneering efforts to consider the serial mediating role of digital engagement and digital leadership between digital job resources and innovative work behaviour, a topic that remains underrepresented in academic discourse. This study addresses these gaps.

This study investigates how academic staff achieves career satisfaction (CS) and life satisfaction (LS) under direct and different configurations of servant leadership (SL) dimensions. Using a survey of academics in Spain, China, and Pakistan, this study uses Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the direct relationship, and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to find configurations of SL dimensions that lead to career and LS. Direct relationships revealed that in each country, almost all dimensions failed to create any individual impact on CS and LS. The fsQCA results revealed an asymmetric relationship between the different SL dimensions and outcomes. Prior SL, CS, and LS research has primarily relied on symmetrical correlational methods. This is one of the first studies to use fsQCA in SL, CS, and LS in higher education literature. Furthermore, there is significantly limited research on SL in a cross-country setting.

The study investigated the impact of digital leadership on teachers’ usage of digital educational resources (DERs). The study collected data from teachers and headteachers in four pre-tertiary schools in Ghana. Also, trust was included as the interacting variable to examine its mediating role in digital leadership and digital educational resource usage to better disentangle the relationship between digital leadership and digital educational resource. The study used symmetrical (Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and asymmetrical approaches (fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) for the analysis of the relationships. The results underpin digital leadership’s importance in digital educational resource implementation outcomes in developing countries’ pre-tertiary schools. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis findings confirm that exclusively using symmetrical approaches for digital educational resource studies may not be sufficient to understand the expected relationships within a proposed model. Under the partial least squares path modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis, trust did not mediate the relationship between digital leadership and teachers’ usage of digital educational resources. Sharply from the PLS-SEM findings, the fsQCA revealed that the presence of digital leadership and trust are necessary conditions to predict teachers’ usage of digital educational resources. These results and their implications for theory and practice are discussed.

In response to the increasing shift toward hybrid work arrangements, this study investigates the role of digital leadership in shaping employee engagement, emphasizing the mediating effects of trust in leadership and digital communication. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model and Social Exchange Theory, this research adopts a quantitative approach using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) based on survey data collected from 385 employees working under hybrid systems in diverse organizational settings. The findings reveal that digital leadership has a significant positive direct effect on employee engagement (β = 0.36, p < 0.001). Furthermore, trust in leadership and digital communication both serve as partial mediators in this relationship, indicating that relational and communicative mechanisms are crucial for sustaining engagement in digitally mediated environments. The structural model explained 51% of the variance in employee engagement, demonstrating strong explanatory power. These results extend current leadership theory by contextualizing digital leadership within hybrid work structures and emphasizing the need for trust-building and high-quality communication. The study contributes to the HRM literature by offering actionable insights for organizations seeking to optimize leadership strategies and communication infrastructures in evolving digital workplaces. Despite limitations related to cross-sectional data and sample generalizability, the research provides a foundation for future longitudinal and cross-cultural investigations into digital leadership dynamics.

Identifying digital leadership's role in fostering competitive advantage through responsible innovation: A SEM-Neural Network approach

Innovative work behavior among lecturers is essential for promoting creativity and academic excellence in higher education, especially during rapid technological and pedagogical changes. This study examines the influence of growth mindset, organizational climate, and digital leadership on innovative work behavior, with creative process engagement as a mediating variable. A quantitative approach was employed, involving 200 lecturers from social sciences and humanities faculties at six major private universities in Surabaya, Indonesia. The sample was selected due to its diverse academic backgrounds and active involvement in institutional innovation. Data analysis using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) confirmed both direct and mediated effects of the independent variables on innovative work behavior. The results indicate that growth mindset (T = 3.21, p < 0.05) and digital leadership (T = 4.02, p < 0.01) have significant direct effects. Most importantly, creative process engagement significantly mediates these relationships. Sobel test results confirm strong mediation effects (T = 4.910 for digital leadership, 4.683 for growth mindset, and 2.951 for organizational climate; all p < 0.01). Creative process engagement accounts for 47.94% of the effect of digital leadership, 43.53% of organizational climate, and 31.84% of growth mindset on innovative work behavior, explaining 76.1% of its variance. These findings highlight the transformative role of creative process engagement in enhancing innovative work behavior. They suggest that fostering a growth mindset, supportive organizational climate, and strong digital leadership – alongside active creative engagement – can significantly boost innovation among lecturers in higher education institutions.

Introduction: This study examines the impact of e-learning, digital leadership, and digital innovation on educational performance in high schools, focusing on Jordan's transition to 5G technology. It explores how these factors enhance educational outcomes in a developing country facing technological and infrastructural challenges.Methods: A quantitative approach was used, collecting data from 385 high school teachers in Jordan through a cross-sectional survey. The study employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the relationships between e-learning, digital leadership, digital innovation, and educational performance.Results: The findings indicate that e-learning significantly improves educational performance by offering flexible and interactive learning environments. Digital leadership is crucial for guiding digital transformation and fostering innovation, while digital innovation, including AI, VR, and AR, enhances teaching methods and student engagement, leading to better educational outcomes.Conclusions: The study concludes that integrating e-learning platforms, effective digital leadership, and digital innovation is essential for improving high school performance. Policymakers and school administrators should invest in digital infrastructure, provide teacher training, and promote a culture of innovation to prepare students for a technology-driven future. This research offers valuable insights for enhancing educational practices in developing countries like Jordan.

In order to have a flexible, effective workplace that promotes the psychological health of employees, leaders must be able to use technology into their leadership style. The purpose of this study is to examine how digital leadership affects PT Semen Padang employees' job satisfaction using intrinsic motivation as a mediating factor. 140 respondents were chosen using proportionate random sampling approaches for this quantitative study, which use the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis technique. The study's findings suggest that intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction are positively and significantly impacted by digital leadership. The association between digital leadership and job satisfaction has been shown to be considerably mediated by intrinsic motivation, which likewise has a positive and considerable impact on job satisfaction. The Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which holds that meeting fundamental psychological needs like competence, autonomy, and connectivity can boost intrinsic motivation and eventually lead to greater job satisfaction, is supported by these findings. The study's results highlight how crucial it is for managers to cultivate digital leadership as a tactic for raising worker motivation and job satisfaction, particularly when dealing with the difficulties posed by digital transformation in the industrial workplace.

In today's world, which is referred to as the era of digital transformation, the expectations from the leader role are changing significantly and digital leadership understanding draws attention as a reflection of these expectations. This study examines the impact of digital leadership on employees' job performance, job satisfaction and career satisfaction and examines the mediating role of Heavy Work Investment (HWI) in this relationship. Within the framework of the sub-dimensions of HWI such as Time Commitment (TC) and Work Intensity (WI), the study investigates how employees' investment in their work is shaped and the guiding role of digital leaders in this process. This study, which aims to determine the mediating role of HWI in the effect of digital leadership on job performance, job satisfaction and career satisfaction of employees, was conducted with 393 employees working in SMEs operating in the IT sector. The data obtained by convenience sampling methods were analyzed with Smart-PLS program. The study was shaped on the axis of structural equation modeling. The findings of the analysis reveal that digital leadership has a significant effect on employees' job performance, job satisfaction and career satisfaction. In addition, it has been determined that HWI creates different mediation mechanisms in terms of its sub-dimensions TC and WI in the relationship between digital leadership and employees' job performance, job satisfaction and career satisfaction. The research findings reveal that digital leadership has positive effects on employees' job performance, job satisfaction and career satisfaction and that HWI plays a partial mediating role in this process. It is noteworthy that while WI is found to be a strengthening factor in this relationship, the effect of TC on job satisfaction and career satisfaction is not significant. This suggests that TC may lead to negative consequences such as burnout and stress instead of increasing employees' motivation and performance. Moreover, practices that increase employee engagement in the digital transformation process appear to play a critical role in maintaining organizational efficiency and employee well-being in the long run. While the findings are in line with the existing literature, they suggest that a deeper understanding of the interaction dynamics between digital leadership and HWI is needed.

PurposeThe goal of this research is to examine the influence of digital leadership (DL) on adaptive capacity (ADC) of small- and medium-sized family businesses (SMFBs). Moreover, the study investigates the mediating influence of the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities represented by sensing capability (SC) and organizational agility (OA), both parallelly and sequentially.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) and supporting empirical evidence, a conceptual framework is developed along with a set of hypotheses. Using survey data collected from 263 SMFBs in Oman, the hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling through partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe analysis reveals that DL positively influences ADC, SC and OA. Additionally, SC and OA both parallelly mediate the link between DL and ADC. Finally, both SC and OA act as sequential mediators in the relationship between DL and ADC among SMFBs.Practical implicationsFor practitioners, the study reveals critical role of DL in strengthening SMFBs. Family business leaders may consider the evidence and invest in leadership development programs to enhance digital competencies, enabling better SC and agility. Policymakers can offer training programs and resources, helping family businesses to build DL and dynamic capabilities essential for thriving in a competitive and evolving business environment.Originality/valueThis study makes four key contributions. First, this study expands the literature at the crossroads of the family business, digitalization, dynamic capabilities and resilience, to investigate the influence of DL on ADC. Second, the role of SC as a mediator in the above relationship, tested in the current study, seems to be overlooked in the empirical literature. Third, the findings demonstrate the mediating role of OA in relationship between DL and ADC. Finally, this appears to be the first study that presents sequential mediating role of SC and OA between DL and ADC, adding a finer-grained understanding of how influence of DL is transmitted to ADC.

The study aims to investigate the impact of digital leadership on sustainable competitive advantage, digital talent, and knowledge workers. Additionally, it explores the mediating role of digital talent (DT) and knowledge workers (KW) in the relationship between digital leadership (DL) and sustainable competitive advantage (SC), using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as its theoretical foundation. The researchers employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine survey data from 784 employees working in Egyptian travel agencies and tour operators. The results demonstrate that DL significantly enhances SC, DT, and KW. Moreover, DT and KW were shown to positively contribute to SC and serve as partial mediators in the relationship between DL and SC. The findings highlight the crucial role of developing DT and creating an environment that embraces technological acceptance and innovation. This approach amplifies the strategic effectiveness of DL, ultimately contributing to long-term organizational success.

This study examines the effect of internal dynamic capabilities i.e., digital leadership, environmental awareness, and organizational learning, on sustainable supply chain performance as studied in the logistics sector. It builds on the Dynamic Capabilities Theory by combining notions of green innovation and sustainability and fills the growing gap in the existing literature. Despite the fact that these domains have been extensively studied independently, there has been limited research examining how internal capabilities contribute to green supply chain innovation (GSCI) that in turn results in sustainability outcomes, especially in the case of emerging markets. Seven hypotheses were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis of data collected from 312 logistics and supply chain professionals in Jordan. This study shows that each of the three capabilities has a major effect on GSCI and therefore sustainable performance. Linking the most influential predictor of sustainability outcome to sustainable supply chain performance, as indicated by the strongest effect (β = 0.825, p < 0.001) between GSCI and sustainable supply chain performance, and followed by significant coefficients between the sustainable information processing (β = 0.261, p < 0.01), and information capabilities (β = 0.297, p < 0.001), indicates that the theory is more suited to GSCI. In particular, digital leadership had the largest impact on the green innovation (β = 0.481, p < 0.001), indicating that the role of digitally driven leadership is to facilitate eco-innovation. In addition, this intermediate factor, GSCI, serves as a variable that mediates relationships between the capabilities and the sustainability outcomes. As the results here suggest, leveraging internal capabilities is a very tangible channel for green innovation that has important ramifications for practitioners and policymakers facing resource constraints.

This study examines the moderating role of supervisory support in the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and nurse service quality, mediated by career satisfaction. We used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to look at the data from Likert-scale questionnaires filled out by 187 nurses from Tjitrowardojo General Hospital in Purworejo, Indonesia. Our findings reveal that HPWS significantly enhances nurse career satisfaction, which in turn positively affects service quality. Moreover, supervisory support not only directly contributes to improved service quality but also strengthens the impact of HPWS on career satisfaction and, indirectly, on service quality. The implications of these results suggest that hospitals can enhance service quality by fostering supportive supervisory relationships and implementing robust performance systems. These findings contribute to the existing literature by highlighting the crucial role of supervisory support in enhancing the effectiveness of performance systems within healthcare settings

This study investigates the role of self-efficacy as a mediator in the association between distributive justice, procedural justice, and career satisfaction. By utilizing a simple random sampling technique, 440 responses were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire from employees of commercial banks in Bangladesh. The data analysis was conducted via the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) methodology, employing the Smart PLS 4.0.9.2v software as a tool. The researchers employed a quantitative research approach in order to evaluate the validity of the conceptual framework. The findings of the study indicate that there is a favourable impact of distributive justice and procedural justice on individuals' levels of career satisfaction. The findings of this study suggest that self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the association between distributive justice, procedural justice, and career satisfaction. This research has the potential to assist banks in enhancing their Human Resources (HR) policies, specifically in the areas of performance-based rewards, promotion criteria, and decision-making processes. By doing so, banks can ensure a greater degree of fairness and transparency, which in turn could contribute to increased employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall long-term success.

Despite the rich literature on the antecedents of career success, the success criterion has generally been measured in a rather deficient manner. This study aims to operationalize and measure career success of rural to urban migrant laborers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by developing an integrated index. The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) with a combination of both reflective and formative constructs is applied. Employing the primary data of 419 migrant laborers in a survey conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2015, the hierarchical model confirms the statistically significant contribution of objective and subjective components to the career success index. Compared to objective career success, subjective career success has a stronger effect on the index. Five dimensions of career success are distinguished including: 1) job satisfaction, 2) career satisfaction, 3) life satisfaction, 4) other-referent criteria and 5) promotion. The first four and the final one are categorized as subjective career success and objective career success respectively. Among the four dimensions of subjective success, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and life satisfaction share lesser weights than success using otherreferent criteria in the model. This finding implies that other-referent criteria play an important role when people evaluate their career success. The index shall provide a general picture of the career success of rural to urban migrant laborers in Ho Chi Minh City and give an empirical result for further micro-research on career success determination.