Purpose: This study aims to examine the influence of workload, burnout, and autocratic leadership on employee performance, with work–life balance as a mediating variable in the Indonesian aviation sector.
Research Methodology: This study employed a quantitative approach involving 311 respondents selected from 1,400 employees through simple random sampling using the Slovin formula. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using PLS-SEM with SmartPLS 4.2 to assess measurement validity, reliability, and structural relationships.
Results: The findings indicate that workload (T = 4.522), burnout (T = 1.884), and autocratic leadership (T = 4.978) have positive and significant indirect effects on employee performance through work–life balance, based on a critical T-value of 1.66. The model explains 54.9% of the variance in employee performance (R² = 0.549), while the remaining 45.1% is attributed to factors outside the model.
Conclusions: Work–life balance plays a significant mediating role in the relationships between workload, burnout, autocratic leadership, and employee performance. These findings highlight the importance of managing organizational demands and leadership practices to support employee performance.
Limitations: This study was limited to a single Indonesian aviation company and a sample of 311 employees, which may restrict the generalizability of the findings.
Contributions: This study contributes to contemporary applications of Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) Theory by highlighting the mediating role of work–life balance in the relationships between
workload, burnout, autocratic leadership, and employee performance, while providing practical insights into workload management, leadership practices, and employee well-being in the aviation industry.