Human resource development (HRD) is key to organizational success. With some HRD roles devolving to leaders in recent years, a gap in understanding is now evident in how leaders' leadership styles shape development-oriented behaviours that may effectively assist them in fulfilling their HRD roles, and the corresponding effects that this has on employee work engagement and turnover intention. This study compared the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employee attitudes (i.e. work engagement and turnover intention) through leaders' behaviours (i.e. supervisory coaching and performance feedback). This study used a multilevel approach (i.e. matching leaders to multiple subordinates) with 500 employees, nested in 65 workgroups from private organizations in Malaysia. As hypothesized, we found a link between transformational (but not transactional) leadership and higher levels of supervisory coaching and performance feedback, and that these job resources mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. Furthermore, we found that work engagement mediates the relationships of both supervisory coaching and performance feedback to turnover intention. Overall, the study results reveal one way in which Asian leaders can effectively facilitate some aspects of HRD through development-focused behaviours which serve as job resources to boost work engagement and reduce turnover intention.

This research stems from the notion that organizational factors, such as leadership styles and organizational culture, can influence employee behavior. Although empowering leaders have been shown to have a positive influence effect on their employees, hierarchical culture can also influence employees' behavior in the opposite direction. In order to investigate their concurrent effects on employees, this study tested the effect of hierarchical culture and empowering leadership on work engagement via work meaningfulness. The study was undertaken among 134 employees from 28 teams from private organizations using a longitudinal survey. We hypothesized that, while hierarchical culture at Time 1 (T1) would decrease work meaningfulness at Time 2 (T2), empowering leadership at T1 would enhance work meaningfulness at T2. We also predicted that work meaningfulness would mediate empowering leadership and work engagement. Overall, the results supported the notion that empowering leadership increases work engagement via work meaningfulness. However, we were unable to find support for the view that hierarchical culture reduces work engagement.

Purpose The importance of organizational climates in enhancing employees’ job performance is well studied in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and team climate on job performance, particularly through job engagement, by using a multilevel survey. The study also predicted that only PSC (and not team climate) predicted job resources (i.e. role clarity and performance feedback). Design/methodology/approach A total of 412 employees from 44 teams (72.6 per cent response rate) in Malaysian private organizations participated in the current study. Findings Research findings revealed that performance feedback and role clarity mediate the relationship between PSC and job engagement, and that there is no direct effect between the variables, team climate, and job resources. As expected, the study also discovered that job engagement mediates the relationship between PSC and team climate related to job performance. Practical implications This paper suggests the importance of PSC as the precursor to better working conditions (i.e. job resources) and to indirectly boosting employees’ engagement and job performance. Originality/value The study compared two distinctive organizational climate constructs that affect the different types of job resources using multilevel approach within the Asian context.

With a leader being able to possess different types of leadership styles, there is a lack of literature investigating which leadership style best facilitates supervisory coaching behavior. The current study aimed to investigate which leadership style would exhibit supervisory coaching behavior, and if supervisory coaching behavior would mediate the relationship between leadership styles and job performance. The study compared the effects of three leadership styles-transformational, transactional, and empowering leadership-on supervisory coaching behavior, which has been reported to influence job performance. A multilevel approach was adopted in this study using 500 employees from 65 organizations within Malaysia. The study found that only empowering and transactional leadership styles exhibited supervisory coaching behavior, which in turn mediated their relationships with job performance. Overall, the findings suggest the importance of leadership styles that prioritize employee development, as these would lead to improved job performance in employees.

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