Exploring Lived Experiences of Engaging Leadership Challenges in Interpersonal Relations in Knowledge-Based Companies

Engaging leadership, due to its unique capabilities in creating people's Engagement at work and its role in interpersonal relationships, as an emerging concept, can be effective in increasing the ability to face the challenges of knowledge companies. Therefore, this research explores the lived experiences of engaging leadership challenges in interpersonal relationships of knowledge-based companies. The research methodology is Husserli's descriptive-phenomenological. The research environment is knowledge-based companies and the research population is people who were working in knowledge-based companies, and information was collected through semi-structured and in-depth interviews; interviews were conducted with 16 employees until data saturation. Convenience-sampling method dependent on the criterion was employed. The researcher was looking for an answer to the question, what challenges does the engaging leadership face in the inter-personal relations of Iran's knowledge-based companies, and what requirements should be considered for the leadership of these knowledge workers? The validity of the research data was verified by returning to the interviewees, in-depth descriptions, and external auditors. Data analysis was done by the 7-step Collaizi method. The results show that the challenges of engaging leadership in knowledge-based companies can be seen in elements such as consensus on the same goals, avoiding reality, added social dignity, stimulation of collective self-efficacy, and communication conflicts.