Abstract
Work engagement is arguably one of the key challenges confronted by the higher education sector of Pakistan. Therefore, it is important to understand the diverse perspectives of work engagement in this sector. This study examines the effect of job demand and spiritual leadership on work engagement in public universities of Pakistan through the mediating role of burnout and moderating effect of spiritual leadership between job demand and burnout and between burnout and work engagement. The study framework was established from theories, namely, the job demand-resource theory and the spiritual leadership theory. The respondents were 271 faculty members working in different universities of Pakistan. The findings show a significant relationship between job demand and burnout and between burnout and work engagement. Moreover, the results show a positive relationship between spiritual leadership with work engagement and negative relationship with burnout. However, the findings show the insignificant direct relationship between job demand and work engagement, whereas burnout mediates the relationship between job demand, spiritual leadership, and work engagement. Interestingly, spiritual leadership plays an important role in moderating the relationship between burnout and work engagement but does not moderate the relationship between job demand and burnout. Besides, the findings of the study will redound to organizational benefits by enriching research on the area of burnout and work engagement, which is so far in its infancy by referring to its potential antecedent and moderating variable. Finally, the study will be useful for both organizations and employees to achieve desired outcomes.
Highlights
In research, though the idea of work engagement is in its inception, it has initially gained much attention in both theory and implication (Byrne & Canato, 2017), encouraging the researchers to translate more and more intuitive theoretical and industrial ideas into empirical sciences for organizations and societies
To address the main objectives of the study, the study findings have highlighted that work demand is positively related to burnout, but, the study has found no relationship between job demand and work engagement
Spiritual leadership did not moderate the relationship between job demand and burnout, whereas burnout has shown a negative relationship with work engagement
Summary
Though the idea of work engagement is in its inception, it has initially gained much attention in both theory and implication (Byrne & Canato, 2017), encouraging the researchers to translate more and more intuitive theoretical and industrial ideas into empirical sciences for organizations and societies. He or she hopes to deliver the best knowledge to his or her students and to own a futuristic vision for his or her career, but the job demands and the negative leadership style have created hurdles in career development and affected the mental health of the teacher, leading to lack of engagement and exhaustion In this scenario, a leader is required who spiritually inculcates a faith, hope, and vision into his or her employees and takes the organization toward a sustainable workplace where every individual is provided with a complete option for their personal and professional development (Najam, Inam, Awan, & Abbas, 2018). Based on the above-discussed literature and hypothesis development, the following research frame has been framed for the current study (Figure 1)
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