The Influence of Digital Leadership on Students’ Employability Readiness in Chinese Private Colleges: The Mediating Role of Learning Motivation

HRMARS - Digital transformation has significantly reshaped higher education environments, particularly regarding institutional leadership, educational governance, and graduate employability development. In Chinese private colleges, students increasingly face employment uncertainty, technological disruption, and intensified labor market competition. Consequently, digital leadership has emerged as an important institutional mechanism for improving students’ employability readiness within technology-driven educational environments. However, existing studies have primarily focused on digital leadership from organizational and administrative perspectives, while relatively limited attention has been devoted to examining how digital leadership influences university students’ employability readiness in private higher education environments. Furthermore, inconsistent findings remain regarding whether institutional digital leadership directly improves students’ employability outcomes or whether psychological and motivational factors mediate this relationship. Therefore, this study aims to identify the influence of digital leadership on students’ employability readiness and examine the mediating role of learning motivation among undergraduate students in Chinese private colleges. Guided by Transformational Leadership Theory proposed by Bass (1985) and Social Exchange Theory developed by Blau (1964), this study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected from undergraduate students enrolled in private colleges in Shaanxi Province, China. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 29.0 and AMOS 26.0 through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The findings revealed that digital leadership significantly influenced employability readiness (? = .621, p < .001) and learning motivation (? = .587, p < .001) among undergraduate students in Chinese private colleges. Furthermore, learning motivation significantly mediated the relationship between digital leadership and employability readiness (? = .355, p < .001). The study contributes to the growing literature on digital leadership and employability development by clarifying the institutional and motivational mechanisms influencing students’ employability readiness within private higher education environments. Future studies are recommended to examine longitudinal changes in students’ employability readiness across different higher education institutions and cultural contexts.