Title: Employee wellbeing in the Indian IT/ITES sector: the role of empowering leadership and work-family enrichment

Authors: Rajesh Premchandran; Pushpendra Priyadarshi

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management, Prabandh Nagar, IIM Road, Lucknow-226013, Uttar Pradesh, India ' Indian Institute of Management, Prabandh Nagar, IIM Road, Lucknow-226013, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract: Using a sample of 508 married professionals from the IT/ITES sector in India, this study examines hedonia, operationalised as subjective wellbeing (SWB) and eudaimonia operationalised as psychological wellbeing (PWB), to shed light on the debate on the significance of distinguishing between two traditions of wellbeing research. We use structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of wellbeing, by examining empowering leadership (EL) as antecedent, and work-family enrichment (WFE) as a mediator. Results indicate that EL is positively linked to both forms of wellbeing. WFE was found to partially mediate the relationship between EL and SWB/PWB. Hedonia and eudaimonia were found to be correlated but distinct constructs. This study contributes to existing research on EL and wellbeing by showing that WFE is a significant pathway through which EL influences employee wellbeing. It is also the first study from the Indian context to explore hedonia and eudaimonia in the same study.

Keywords: employee wellbeing; eudaimonia; hedonia; empowering leadership; work-family enrichment; WFE; subjective wellbeing; SWB; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHD.2018.096431

International Journal of Happiness and Development, 2018 Vol.4 No.4, pp.340 - 359

Received: 16 Aug 2017
Accepted: 26 Apr 2018
Published online: 28 Nov 2018 *

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