Objective of research to examine whether leader-member exchange (LMX), Change Oriented Leadership (COL), MBO, Talent Management (TM) have an effect on Corporate Performance (BSC) with Employee Engagement (EME) as a mediating variable. The model used in this research is a stepwise linear regression analysis used to examine about existence of mediating variable between variable in this context. This analysis was carried out in Two-Stage Least Square (2SLS). Research using two proposed models showed similar results that for LMX and TM each had a significant effect on BSC directly or through EME. COL and MBO have an insignificant effect, it is caused by employee disappointment with the company over the leadership style and implementation of MBO. Practitioners, in this case, workers, can continue to improve their performance, because basically, the results achieved are the result of the work hard of each party with a good performance. Engagement between employees and the organization is something that needs to be considered both physically and psychologically. In good conditions, employees will work optimally in carrying out their work with a good performance. In the current pandemic conditions, researchers assume to add measurements by including WFH elements as a new indicator of employee engagement.

Optimized corporate performance assumes that financial and non-financial performance can be achieved through effective collaboration between leaders and employees. This study analyzes the mediation of employee engagement on the connection between dark side leadership and leader-member exchange on corporate performance in Indonesia. This study used a mixed methods approach by distributing questionnaires to 1,013 respondents consisting of supervisors and managers and conducting intensive interviews with 20 respondents with more than 25 years of work experience to strengthen the perception of answers. The paper uses multiple linear regression analysis. The regression results show that dark side leadership (β = –0.228, ρ = 0.000) and leader-member exchange (β = 0.424, ρ = 0.000) affect employee engagement. Next, leader-member exchange (β = 0.176, ρ = 0.008) and employee engagement (β = 0.391, ρ = 0.000) affect corporate performance, while dark side leadership has no effect (β = 0.020, ρ = 0.400). Finally, employee engagement mediates the effect of dark side leadership and leader-member exchange on corporate performance. This finding indicates that the comfort level of employees at work will decrease if a leader demonstrates a dark side behavior that can affect his/her performance, which later impacts corporate performance. Furthermore, the novelty contribution of dark side leadership measurements on the cultural and emotional dimensions can impact employee turnover intention. This study offers implications for practitioners to conduct selective assessments at the beginning of leader recruitment and control internal leader assessments to create effective organizational behavior. AcknowledgmentThis paper is not supported by grants or scholarship and is free from conflict of interest.