Title: Effects of leader safety commitment and perceived organisational support on psychological well-being in China's higher education: the mediating role of work engagement

Authors: Li Qin; Rosmah Binti Mohamed; Anuar Shan Bin Bali Mahomed; Hanna Ambaras Khan; Joanna Loura Anak Jimbune

Addresses: School of Economics and Business, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selongor, Malaysia ' School of Economics and Business, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selongor, Malaysia ' School of Economics and Business, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selongor, Malaysia ' School of Economics and Business, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selongor, Malaysia ' School of Economics and Business, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selongor, Malaysia

Abstract: The idea of continuously improving employees' work engagement by job resources to achieve positive psychological well-being is particularly crucial. This study investigated the impact of mediating effect of leader safety commitment (LSC) and perceived organisational support (POS) on psychological well-being (PWB) among 236 teachers in Chinese public university and examined the mediating effect of work engagement (WE) as a conveyor band that defines LEC, POS and PWB. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The finding showed that POS has positive effect on WE, and WE have positive effect on PWB. On the other hand, WE partially mediated the relationship between POS and PWB, while LSC failed. This study is the first to clarify the importance of perceived organisational support to the mental health of university teachers in the post epidemic period.

Keywords: work engagement; leader safety commitment; LSC; perceived organisational support; POS; psychological well-being; PWB; job demand-resource theory; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2026.153092

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2026 Vol.39 No.4, pp.520 - 535

Received: 30 Jun 2022
Accepted: 20 Oct 2022
Published online: 22 Apr 2026 *

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