Shaping Digital Work Life in Hotels: How Digital Empowering Leadership Fosters Digital Work Engagement Through Self-Efficacy and Thriving

Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, this study investigates how digital technologies shape employees’ work experiences and social life in digitally transforming hotel organizations. Specifically, it examines the role of digital empowering leadership in fostering digital work engagement through the mediating mechanisms of digital self-efficacy and digital thriving at work within five-star hotels in Egypt. As digital technologies increasingly redefine how employees interact, collaborate, and derive meaning from their work, understanding the human and social consequences of digital transformation has become a critical research priority. Data were collected from 394 full-time employees working in five-star hotels in Egypt and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with WarpPLS software. The findings reveal that digital empowering leadership significantly enhances employees’ digital work engagement, digital self-efficacy, and digital thriving at work. Furthermore, digital self-efficacy and digital thriving at work positively influence digital work engagement and partially mediate the relationship between digital empowering leadership and digital work engagement. By highlighting how digitally enabled leadership shapes employees’ psychological capabilities and flourishing in technology-rich workplaces, this study contributes to the growing literature on the social implications of digital technologies in organizational settings. The findings underscore that successful digital transformation extends beyond technological adoption to encompass employees’ empowerment, well-being, and meaningful engagement in digital work environments. Practical implications are provided for hotel managers seeking to cultivate human-centered digital workplaces that support employees’ social and psychological flourishing amid ongoing technological change.