The Role of Work Engagement Mediation in The Influence of Transformational Leadership and Job Satisfaction on Educated Generation Z Employees' Intentions to Stay in Their Jobs

This study investigates how educational-oriented leadership and job satisfaction influence educated Generation Z employees’ intention to stay, with work engagement as a learning-mediated mechanism in the manufacturing sector. Framed within educational management and workplace learning, this research positions employee retention as an outcome of organizational learning processes rather than a purely administrative human resource function. A quantitative approach was applied using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Data were collected from 210 educated Generation Z employees at PT Pabrik Kertas Tjiwi Kimia Tbk through purposive sampling. The findings indicate that transformational leadership and job satisfaction significantly enhance work engagement, which in turn mediates employees’ intention to stay. This study contributes novel insights by explicitly integrating educational leadership and workplace learning into retention research for educated Generation Z in manufacturing contexts. Practically, the results suggest that organizations fostering learning-oriented leadership, meaningful work experiences, and continuous development pathways are more likely to retain young employees. The study offers implications for educational leadership development, organizational learning design, and evidence-based retention policies in industrial settings.