Linking empowering leadership and work environment with employee performance: The mediating role of job stress.

Background: Understanding the influence of empowering leadership and a supportive work environment on job stress and employee performance can help organizations adopt effective management strategies. This, in turn, can lead to higher productivity, better quality of work, and increased organizational success.

Objective: This study aims to investigate relationship between empowering leadership, work environment, and employee performance by emphasizing the mediating role of job stress.

Methods: The sample population comprised 100 employees working in the culinary industry in Central Java, Indonesia, who were selected using the purposive sampling method. The data obtained were analyzed using SmartPLS 3.2.9 version to understand relationship between these variables.

Results: The results showed that empowering leadership had no direct impact on employee performance and job stress. However, work environment was positively associated with employee performance and negatively related to job stress. The results also showed that job stress had a negative effect, and it partially mediated relationship between work environment and employee performance.

Conclusion: This study significantly advanced the understanding of organizational behavior by emphasizing the essential role of work environment in shaping employee performance. In addition, the results showed that a positive work environment was strongly associated with higher employee performance and reduced job stress.