Entrepreneurial Leadership and Employee Wellbeing During COVID-19 Crisis: A Dual Mechanism Perspective

Abstract

This study examined the potential impacts of entrepreneurial leadership on followers' psychological wellbeing and proactive work behavior through sustainable employability and work uncertainty in a sample of 218 employees employed in SMEs of Pakistan. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated that entrepreneurial leadership was positively connected with sustainable employability and negatively linked with work uncertainty. Sequentially, sustainable employability was positively correlated with proactive work behavior and employees' psychological wellbeing, and work uncertainty was negatively associated with proactive work behavior and employees' psychological wellbeing during the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, bootstrapping confirmed the mediation effects of work uncertainty and sustainable employability on proactive work behavior and the psychological wellbeing of employees. Sustainable employability did not mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and psychological wellbeing. Mediators, sustainable employability, and work uncertainty positively linked employees' psychological wellbeing and proactive work behavior. The results highlighted the significant roles of sustainable employability and work uncertainty and interpreted why entrepreneurial leadership may affect employees' positive behaviors.