The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of authoritarian leadership and authentic leadership, which satisfies employees’ needs to different extents, on employees’ engagement with their work. The moderating effect of intrinsic motivation between leadership and work engagement also was tested among Chinese workers in Taiwan. The snowball sampling method was used, and data were collected for 350 subordinate-supervisor dyads. The results of regression analysis indicated that, when controlling for obedience, authoritarian leadership was found to be negatively related to subordinates’ work engagement, but authentic leadership was found to be positively related to work engagement. Intrinsic motivation appears to foster the positive relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement and buffer the adverse impact of authoritarian leadership on work engagement. The theoretical, research, and practical implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.