Empowering leadership and university teachers’ work engagement: the mediating role of job crafting and the moderating role of role breadth self-efficacy

Introduction University teachers work under growing workload, performance, and role pressures, making work engagement an important concern for higher education institutions. Drawing on job demands–resources theory, this study examined whether job crafting mediates the association between empowering leadership and work engagement and whether role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) moderates this indirect relationship among university teachers. Methods Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 468 university teachers in China. The hypothesized mediation and moderated mediation relationships were examined using path analysis. Results Empowering leadership was positively associated with work engagement, and job crafting mediated this relationship. RBSE strengthened the association between empowering leadership and job crafting, such that the indirect association between empowering leadership and work engagement through job crafting was stronger among teachers with higher RBSE. Discussion The findings are consistent with an indirect relationship between empowering leadership and work engagement through proactive changes in tasks, relationships, and work meaning. The study extends job demands–resources theory to the higher education context and highlights empowering leadership, support for job crafting, and the development of RBSE as potential practical approaches for sustaining university teachers’ work engagement.