Quale relazione tra leadership e work engagement? Uno studio pilota in una pubblica amministrazione - What is the relationship between leadership and work engagement? A pilot study in a public administration

The interest in leadership development has become particularly significant in recent decades. Leadership seems able to sustain organizational success and well-being at work. This study explores, in a sample of 125 employees, the relationship between leadership (transformational and destructive) and work engagement. The results show that work engagement, positively related to autonomy, may be adversely affected by destructive leadership while, in this study, it doesn’t seem to be influenced by transformational leadership. This research suggests the importance of development programs based on individualized training methods, directed at the improvement of leader’s resources but also ready to capture the deeper and complex dynamics, sometimes “dark”, of the relationship between leaders and followers.