Science Research Management

Science Research Management ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (6): 176-183.

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The influence of quantum leadership on employees′ work engagement in uncertain situations

Xin Jie, Han Yu, Liu Shujun, Sun Weimin   

  1. School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, Shandong, China
  • Received:2020-06-04 Revised:2020-11-25 Online:2021-06-20 Published:2021-06-22

Abstract:    The VUCA characteristics of the operating environment of enterprises are increasingly obvious. Under such uncertain circumstances, the accumulation of negative emotions and psychological states will hinder employees′ active involvement in their work. The reduction of employees′ work engagement has a great impact on the resumption of work and production of enterprises under uncertain circumstances, so it is necessary to explore the antecedent variable to improve employees′ work engagement under uncertain circumstances. Leaders, as important antecedents in the organizational environment, can exert an important influence on employees′ work attitude and behavior. Although many leaders have some characteristics of quantum leadership in management practice and have a certain influence on employees′ job engagement, there is still a lack of theoretical research on the influence mechanism of quantum leadership on employees′ job engagement under uncertain scenarios.
   The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 is a representative "uncertain" event for enterprises, which can better fit the management scenario of this study. In accordance with the principle of random sampling, 1,017 questionnaires were collected from employees of enterprises in six provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Yunnan, Hebei and Sichuan in 2020(from March 20 to April 13, 2020) during the period when the covid-19 epidemic was gradually brought under control and enterprises resumed production. In the context of uncertainty, this paper empirically studies the impact of quantum leadership on employees′ work engagement, and proposes two variables based on the theory of self-depletion, which is self-depletion and loneliness in the workplace, to explore their mechanism of action in this process.
    The empirical results show that:(1) quantum leadership has a significant positive impact on employees′ job engagement. When an organization faces an uncertain situation, it should resort to the cultivation of quantum leadership, so as to promote employees to improve their vitality, dedication and concentration in the workplace, and thus improve their job engagement.(2) Ego depletion plays a partial mediating role between quantum leadership and job engagement. Quantum-type leadership can improve employees′ positive emotions and supplement their psychological resources, thus reducing their ego depletion and further increasing their job engagement.(3) Workplace loneliness regulates the relationship between self-depletion and job engagement. In order to better exert the positive influence of quantum leadership on employee job engagement, it is necessary to pay attention to and eliminate the workplace loneliness of employees.
    The research in this paper extends and enriches the theoretical research on the influence of leadership style on employees′ job engagement. In the context of uncertainty, this paper introduces the theory of self-depletion from the perspective of individual employees, and based on the theory of self-depletion, it investigates the process of the role of quantum leadership from the perspective of psychological resources, thus enriching the research on the boundary conditions and action mechanism of the influence of quantum leadership on the employee′s work engagement. This paper provides some enlightenment for how business leaders in uncertain situation effectively improve employee work involvement， such as cultivating the seven characteristics of quantum type, attaching importance to and eliminate the need for the employee ego depletion, reduce the employee′s work alone, etc.

Key words: quantum leadership, work engagement, ego depletion, workplace loneliness