Antecedents of employee engagement with the mediation and moderation of occupational stress and social support: a study of Pakistan banks

Organizations globally are facing with the problem of low employee engagement whereby; dearth of empirical studies and literature gaps exist, on how it could be addressed particularly in an emerging economy such as Pakistan. Upon the explanation of Social Exchange Theory and Job Demand Resource Theory; studies have identified transformational leadership, psychological empowerment and motivation with the mediation and moderation of occupational stress and social support as the most promising strategies for understanding employee engagement. The study objectives were to assess the relationship between transformational leadership, psychological empowerment and motivation with the mediation and moderation of occupational stress and social support with employee engagement in the banking industry of Pakistan. The study followed the survey method for the collection of data from 384 front-line employees of the six large banks of Pakistan. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 23 and PLS-SEM version 3. Results of the PLS path modelling found the significant direct relationships between transformational leadership, psychological empowerment, and motivation with employee engagement. Meanwhile, the relationships between transformational leadership and motivation were significant and negative with occupational stress except psychological empowerment. The study found the significant mediation of occupational stress on the relationships between transformational leadership and motivation with employee engagement. Alternatively, occupational stress does not mediate between psychological empowerment and employee engagement. Furthermore, the bootstrapping result has found significant moderation of social support between the relationship of occupational stress and employee engagement. The theoretical and practical implications of the study have assisted future scholars and policy makers, management heads and leaders, that employee engagement can be enhanced through transformational leadership, psychological empowerment, and motivation whereas, occupational stress can potentially deplete it In addition, social support acts as a key role of buffering occupational stress, which consequently increases employee engagement in the banking sector of Pakistan