Abstract:
How to increase and maintaining employee engagement is one of the critical problems in the apparel industry and it is a thesis which is under explored. Novel organizations have become aware that leadership styles are a determinant which can increase the employee engagement. Leadership styles create intercommunication between the leader and the subordinates in the organizations. Thus, this study empirically evaluates job stress as the mediator between leadership styles and employee engagement of middle and operational level employees in the apparel sector in Sri Lanka. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed by using convenient sampling method to secure responses from 100 middle and operational level employees working for top 05 apparel firms in Sri Lanka. The data were analyzed using correlation coefficient, regression, Baron and Kenny mediator assessment method and Sobal test. The results of the study indicated that there is a positive relationship between leadership styles and employee engagement. Mediator assessment and Sobal test identified that job stress partially mediate the relationship between the leadership styles and employee engagement. The findings show the importance of managers to building a positive and naive relationship with their middle and operational level employees to maintain and enhance the employee engagement Moreover, the study makes a number of recommendations to managers based on the findings of the study.
