Internal audience watches the boss walking the talk: the mechanism of management’s mission alignment for internal branding

Purpose Although the alignment between mission statement and leadership practices leads to higher employee performance, it is unclear how the alignment is linked with employee work engagement (EWE), and this vague linkage is a significant research gap in internal branding. Therefore, the current study aims to focus on management mission alignment as perceived by employees as an antecedent of EWE, and clarifies its related mechanism for EWE. Design/methodology/approach The current study uses survey data (n = 150) from the airline industry and analyzes the data by adopting structural equation modeling. Findings Employee perception of management mission alignment affects EWE directly and indirectly through emotional exhaustion and organizational identification. Also, employee mission engagement can enhance the effect of management mission alignment on EWE. Originality/value The current study makes three contributions to internal branding and employee engagement literature. First, as a response to the need to investigate a driver of EWE, it identifies management mission alignment as an initiator of EWE. Second, as an effort to elucidate the unclear mechanism for EWE, it demonstrates three different processes for EWE, represented by the three theories, including job demand-resource theory, conservation of resource theory and social identity theory. This sheds light on the process where management mission alignment has influences on EWE. Third, it proposes employee mission engagement as an employee mission-related factor that can moderate the effect of management mission alignment on EWE.