Abstract
This study aims to test the relationship between perceived empowering leadership behavior and the work engagement. Also, the mediating role of psychological empowerment in this relation has been examined. The study applied on a sample of 360 employees at the Egyptian cement industry in Upper Egypt. Data was collected using work engagement questionnaire based on the Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, and Bakker (2002) scale. The current study used the scale of the Zhang & Bartol study (2010), prepared by Ahearne et al., (2005) to measure the empowering leadership behaviors. Psychological empowerment has been measured using Spreitzer (1995) and Zhung and Bartol (2010).
 
 The study was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program in data processing for AMOS to test the quality of compatibility between the collected data and the theoretical data, and the structural model to test the study hypotheses. 
 
 The results did not support the direct relationship between leadership empowered behavior and work engagement. The empowering leadership behavior is positively affecting the psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment was found to be positively affecting work engagement. However, the psychological empowerment was found to be mediating the relationship between the two variables. The study reached some conclusions related to this relationship and how to have it enhanced in the Cement industry in Upper Egypt.
Highlights
Recent economic and political situation of many Egyptian business organizations have increased the interest in understanding and developing effective leadership
The positive correlation between the empowering leadership behavior and psychological empowerment indicates that if organizations want to maintain psychological empowerment, they should support the behavior of the empowered leader by giving the managers more professional authority
The relationship between empowering leadership behaviors and work engagement is clearly improved when mediated by psychological empowerment
Summary
Recent economic and political situation of many Egyptian business organizations have increased the interest in understanding and developing effective leadership. Fighting corruption in Egypt does not need issuing more laws and regulations. The problem in Egypt, according to World Justice Project ( WJP) data, was not so much that the country lacked the regulations needed to crack down on corruption but that it failed to enforce them (World Bank, 2014). Creating a healthy climate in Egyptian organizations through transparency, trust and empowerment will help reducing corruption in these organizations. Having empowered leaders who can enforce law in organizations and empowered employees will help in creating healthy work place where employee well-being and high performance are maintained. Leaders play an important role in employees’ well-being and performance. The successful leader shares power and control, engages employees (Winston, and Patterson, 2006) and is concerned for empowerment (Shelton, 1997)
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