Abstract
This study examines how leadership and work-life balance influence employee performance directly and indirectly through employee engagement at the Fisheries Service of Central Maluku Regency. A descriptive quantitative, causal-correlational design was applied to the entire population of 49 employees using total sampling. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, path analysis, and Sobel tests to estimate direct, indirect, and mediating effects. The findings show that leadership significantly affects employee engagement (beta = 0.582; p < 0.001), while work-life balance also has a significant, although smaller, effect on engagement (beta = 0.129; p = 0.005). Employee engagement strongly affects performance (beta = 0.942; p < 0.001). In contrast, the direct effects of leadership (beta = 0.034; p = 0.613) and work-life balance (beta = -0.008; p = 0.756) on performance are not significant. Sobel testing confirms that employee engagement mediates the effect of leadership on performance (p = 0.00015) and the effect of work-life balance on performance (p = 0.03). The model explains 92.4% of the variance in performance. The study's novelty lies in demonstrating, within a local public-sector context, that leadership and work-life balance improve performance primarily by strengthening employee engagement rather than through direct effects. These findings imply that public organizations should prioritize engagement-oriented leadership and work-life policies to achieve sustainable employee performance.
