The Impact of Entrepreneurial Leadership on Employees’ Job Satisfaction: The Mediating Effect of Job Characteristics

Abstract

Abstract: In an increasingly uncertain and competitive environment, organizations striving for sustainable success are required to adopt an entrepreneurial orientation that fosters adaptability and innovativeness. Entrepreneurial orientation represents an organization’s strategic direction and its ability to identify and exploit market opportunities through specific decision-making styles and strategic procedures. The successful implementation of such orientation depends on leaders who apply an entrepreneurial leadership style.

Entrepreneurial leadership refers to leaders who are willing to take risks, exploit opportunities, and stimulate creativity in value creation and strategic processes. Entrepreneurs as leaders exert significant influence on their employees and prior research suggests that entrepreneurial leadership positively affects employees’ job satisfaction. An important aspect of entrepreneurial leadership is encouraging employees to display self-initiated behavior which may be associated with the degree of autonomy and other work-related characteristics experienced by employees. Job characteristics, including autonomy, task variety, task significance, task identity, and feedback, relate to the scope and nature of tasks as well as to the way work is performed. According to the Job Characteristics Theory higher levels of autonomy, task variety, task significance, and feedback represent important predictors of job satisfaction. Moreover, entrepreneurial leaders may shape employees’ perceptions of job characteristics through processes of social influence and environmental framing, given their unique position within both the objective and social work environment.

Although previous studies confirm the positive relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and job satisfaction, as well as between job characteristics and job satisfaction, limited research has examined whether job characteristics serve as a mediating mechanism through which entrepreneurial leadership influences job satisfaction. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and job satisfaction and to test the mediating role of job characteristics in this relationship.

Data will be collected through a structured online questionnaire distributed to employees across various organizations in the Republic of Serbia. The questionnaire will consist of scaled items measured on a five-point Likert scale. It is expected that entrepreneurial leadership and job characteristics will positively influence job satisfaction, with job characteristics demonstrating a significant mediating effect. These findings have theoretical implications for expanding the knowledge base and enriching the literature on leadership, entrepreneurship, and job design, particularly in the context of the Republic of Serbia, where research on the relationships among these variables remains limited. The practical implications of the findings relate to providing guidance for managers and HR professionals in fostering autonomy, responsibility, and meaningful work in order to enhance employee job satisfaction.