Organizational culture as a mediator of credible leadership influence on work engagement: empirical studies in private hospitals in East Java, Indonesia

The success of health services in hospitals depends on the work engagement of medical and non-medical personnel in providing quality services for patients. Engaged employees will be more proactive, take the initiative to collaborate with others, and are committed to achieving high-quality performance. A leader’s ability in an organization is a major factor in building a work ethic in the organization, instilling values, norms, and ethics through organizational culture into employee work behavior, such as work engagement. Credibility leadership is the practice of leading an organization through a positive culture change. Credible leadership can increase work engagement through an organizational culture emphasized by education and organizational leaders. The study aimed to analyze the influence of leadership credibility and organizational culture on work engagement by sampling medical and non-medical personnel at two private hospitals in Madiun City. The hypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis. The results of hypothesis testing show that: (1) credible leadership has a significant positive influence on organizational culture; (2) organizational culture has a significant positive influence on work engagement; (3) organizational culture is the perfect mediator of credible leadership influences on work engagement. This study’s results confirm that leaders’ role in shaping a positive organizational culture through good credible leadership practices, while organizational culture can increase employee work engagement.