The Effect Mechanism of the Relationship Between Leaders and Subordinates on the Work Engagement of Knowledge Workers

Abstract

In recent years, knowledge workers have become the core of organizational competitiveness in the era of knowledge economy, and also the management of knowledge workers has become the hot spot and focus of human resource management departments. In order to explore the influence factors of work Engagement and the internal mechanism among knowledge workers, 500 knowledge workers were investigated by leadership-member exchange scale, psychological security scale and work Engagement scale respectively, and 448 valid questionnaire was collected. The correlation analysis results showed that the LMX was significantly positively correlated with psychological security (r=0.61, p<0.01) and work engagement (r=0.57, p<0.01), also the correlation between psychological security and work engagement was significant (r=0.45, p<0.01). Hierarchical regression analysis results showed that the LMX had a significant positive effect on the Work Engagement of knowledge Workers (=0.56, p<0.001), and the psychological security played a partly mediation effect role between the LMX and Work Engagement, and its size was 0.11. That is to say, the relationship between leaders and subordinates could not only affect the work engagement directly, but also could improve the work engagement through the psychological security of knowledge workers. The conclusion has also given some advice to the management and motivation of knowledge workers. To improve the work engagement of knowledge workers, we can start from building a good relationship between superiors and subordinates, improving the quality of communication between superiors and subordinates, and improving the psychological security of knowledge workers.