Enhancing employee work engagement through organizational identification, gender and leader social dominance orientation

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of organizational identification on employee work engagement (EWE) and to what extent this relationship strengthens/weakens when moderated by gender and leader social dominance orientation (SDO). Design/methodology/approach To test the hypothesized relationships, the authors collected data from supervisors ( n = 101) and their subordinates ( n = 478) working in medium and large organizations in the service industry. To test the hypothesized model, the authors used structural equation modeling in MPlus. Findings The data revealed that organizational identification is positively associated with EWE. Interestingly, the effects were stronger on female EWE than male EWE. Furthermore, the findings of this study displayed that leader SDO negatively moderated the relationship between organizational identification and EWE. The results of this study were more potent when the leader SDO was low versus high. Originality/value The findings mainly contribute to the social identity theory by examining the moderating role of gender and leader SDO on the link between organizational identification and EWE. This study offers practitioners insights into the importance of gender in EWE and the type of leadership. Conducting this study in a developing economy provided a unique contextual finding, which will be helpful for the practitioners who want to improve the work engagement of female employees.