Leadership development and employee experience management: comparing cultural and psychological pathways

Purpose This study aims to examine the association between employees’ perceptions of leadership development (LD) and employee experience management (EXM), comparing the indirect roles of positive organisational culture (POC) and psychological safety (PS). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 403 employees of Portuguese public and private organisations through a cross-sectional survey. Confirmatory factor analysis and latent structural equation modelling were conducted with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. A reverse specification that positioned POC as an antecedent of LD was also estimated. Findings LD showed a strong positive total association with EXM. The specific indirect association through POC was significant, whereas the indirect association through PS was not significant after both pathways were estimated simultaneously. The indirect association through POC was significantly stronger. The direct LD–EXM path was not significant, and the reverse model showed identical fit, precluding conclusions about causal ordering. Originality/value This study contributes to human resource development research by integrating LD, POC, PS and EXM within a latent model and by comparing cultural and psychological pathways. The findings identify POC as the more distinctive explanatory pathway while demonstrating the need for caution when interpreting cross-sectional mediation and closely related workplace perceptions.