Abstract
M.Phil.
Effective leadership is vital for any organisation as a leader has the power and ability to mould the culture within an organisation. Theory has linked the level of engagement, meaningfulness and psychological safety of employees to the leadership structure within an organisation. Disengaged employees have considerable cost implications for organisations.
The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety amongst leaders within the workplace. This study further investigated the possible moderating role of job level on psychological meaning and psychological safety on work engagement.
Using non-probability sampling, a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was administered to a sample of individuals from several organisations in the Gauteng province (N = 587). The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9 item), the Psychological Conditions Scale (PCS), the Psychological Meaningfulness Scale (PMS), and Kahn’s method of measuring psychological safety were utilised. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients between work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety were determined. Moderated multiple regression analysis was used to determine if the levels of leadership explained variance in the variables measured. In addition, a MANOVA was performed to determine the difference in means between the levels of leadership and work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety respectively. Further to this, one-way ANOVA were then conducted for work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety with regards to each level of leadership respectively.
Results confirmed that a significant positive relationship exists between work engagement and psychological meaningfulness, between work engagement and psychological safety and between psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety respectively. The results...