How Participation Management Influences Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Perceived Fit and Leader-Member Exchange

Abstract

How does participative management influence work motivation? The empirical evidence is mixed. We bridged contradictory findings by proposing previously unexamined mediational mechanisms that link participative management practices to work engagement. The results show that participative management practices have the potential to prompt employees to act in line with the organization's goal and values that, in turn, leads to work engagement. In particular, person-organization (PO) fit, need-supply (NS) fit, and leader-member exchange (LMX) are central to setting the relations among participative management practices, perceived fit, and work engagement. The results suggest that participative management should provide multiple avenues to fulfill human needs, thus strengthening employee engagement at work.