Employee engagement has been at the center of attention for human resource personnel and researchers who stated that employee engagement can be a key driver of an organization's business success. Many researchers have found in recent researches that a transformational leadership style has a beneficial connection with employee engagement. Thus, this study aims to find the causal effect of perceived transformational leadership on employee engagement through the mediating role of leader’s emotional intelligence. We analyze the data from a sample of 338 full-time employees working in the ICT sector in Palestine using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the hypothesis. Later, the bootstrapping analysis was conducted to confirm the mediation test in this study. The finding shows that transformational leadership style has a significant effect on employee engagement for the mediating role of emotional intelligence. The effect of transformational leadership on employee engagement was found to be completely mediated by leader’s emotional intelligence at work. Theoretically, this empirical study contributed to the new knowledge on the unique mediating effects of leader’s emotional intelligence in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee engagement in the Middle Eastern Region. Practically, this study has managerial implication in the area of organizational management, leadership and human resource management.

Employee engagement helps businesses in attaining their goals. Employee engagement has been at the center of attention for human resource personnel and researchers who stated that employee engagement can be a key driver of an organization's business success. In Palestine, only 11% of employees are engaged in work. Many researchers recently have found that transformational leadership style has an impact on the work engagement of employees. The population involved in this study includes 5281 full-time employees of which a sample of 328 employees was selected. Moreover, this study is considered to be the first local method to find and analyze the current causal effect of perceived transformational leadership style on employee engagement within the context of Palestine. The data was analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Analysis of Moments Structure (AMOS) was employed to answer the research questions and to test the hypotheses in this study. Results found that transformational leadership style has a significant effect on employee engagement. Results show that transformational leadership is perceived to be more effective leadership in Palestine context. In conclusion, these study findings supported the hypothesis, answered the research question, and achieved the objectives of this study. Additionally; this study has successfully addressed the gaps found in previous literature review has contributed to the body of knowledge, as well as in providing useful implications to the industry in the context of Palestine and Middle Eastern Region.