Leadership, Value Congruence and Work Engagement: A Two-Wave Study

Sustaining employees’ work engagement remains a critical challenge for contemporary organizations, particularly in contexts marked by increasing complexity and changing job demands. Despite extensive attention to engagement, less is known about how leadership behaviors contribute to engagement through employees’ perceptions of it with their organization. Drawing on fit theory, the present study examines the relationship between leadership behaviors and work engagement, focusing on the role of person–organization fit. To this end, the current paper presents a theoretical model positing value congruence (a core element of person–organization fit) as a key factor in mediating the positive relationship between the perceptions of leadership behaviors and work engagement. To test this assertion, a two-wave study using a final sample of 143 employees from a food industry company was designed. Results from structural equation modelling (SEM) supported the hypothesized model, such that, over time, the perceptions of leadership behaviors were associated with higher value congruence, which, in turn, was associated with higher work engagement. In addition, value congruence fully mediated the relationship between the perceptions of leadership behaviors and work engagement, even after controlling for the effect of gender, age, and organizational tenure. Practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.