The trickle-down of work engagement from leader to follower: The roles of optimism and self-efficacy

Abstract

The present research seeks to explore how and when leader work engagement trickles down to the follower. Relying on social learning theory, we hypothesize that optimism mediates the relationship between leader work engagement and follower work engagement. Follower self-efficacy is supposed to strengthen the effect of follower optimism on work engagement. In a sample of 707 employees from 72 teams in Chinese enterprises, we tested the hypotheses using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The results suggest that leader work engagement is positively related to follower work engagement and that follower optimism significantly mediates the relationship. Moreover, follower self-efficacy strengthens the positive relationship between follower optimism and work engagement as well as the indirect effect of leader work engagement on follower work engagement via follower optimism. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.