The Effect of Benevolent Leadership on Job Engagement through Psychological Safety and Workplace Friendship Prevalence in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Abstract

This study examines how job engagement (JE) is affected by benevolent leadership (BL). This study also explores psychological safety (PS) and workplace friendship (WF) as mediators. Data were collected from employees working in Egypt’s five-star hotels and category (A) travel agencies. There were 320 valid responses that were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings demonstrated that there is a positive relationship between benevolent leadership and job engagement. There were positive relationships between benevolent leadership and PS/WF. The findings also revealed a positive relationship between PS/WF and job engagement. In addition, the findings revealed that psychological safety and workplace friendship mediate the relationship between BL and JE. This research contributes to the studies on BL, PS, and WF in terms of JE, specifically in the hospitality and tourism context. It also includes suggestions for enhancing the workplace environment in hotel and tourism enterprises via BL, PS, and WF.