Does a tolerant leader raise work engagement?
Among 435 public-health staff, leader tolerance predicted work engagement (β=0.377) both directly and via a POS → organizational-identification chain.
Source
Boosting work engagement through leader tolerance: the chain mediation role of perceived organizational support and organizational identification
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Survey of front-line public-health staff; PROCESS Model 6 chain mediation (POS → organizational identification)
- N
- N=435 · 435 front-line public health service staff
- Population
- Front-line public health service employees reporting on leader tolerance, POS, identification, and engagement
- Outcome
- Work engagement, with perceived organizational support and organizational identification as chain mediators
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
Surveyed 435 front-line public health staff, checked CMV (Harman), reliability/validity (α, KMO, AVE, CR, CFA), and tested chain mediation with SPSS PROCESS Model 6 under Affective Events Theory.
What they found
Leader tolerance positively predicted engagement (β=0.377), POS (β=0.437), and identification (β=0.203). POS predicted identification (β=0.223) and engagement (β=0.501); identification predicted engagement (β=0.174). POS and identification jointly mediated the tolerance–engagement link.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Cross-sectional self-reports cannot prove causality or rule out reverse paths; findings are from Chinese public-health staff, not all industries.
Key terms
- Leader tolerance
- Leaders accepting followers’ work errors rather than only punishing them.
- Work engagement
- Employees’ energetic, dedicated involvement in work.
- POS
- Perceived organizational support—belief the organization values employees.
- Organizational identification
- Degree to which the organization is part of the self-concept.
- AET
- Affective Events Theory linking workplace events to affect and behavior.
Flashcards
Research intelligence for this paper
See its role on concept claims, tensions it is part of, placement history, and related discoveries.
Quiz yourself
N of public-health staff:
Common questions
Who was surveyed?
435 front-line public health service staff.
Direct effect of leader tolerance on engagement?
β = 0.377, p < 0.001.
What mediated the link?
POS and organizational identification in a chain.
Analytic tool?
SPSS PROCESS Model 6.
More on Motivation