The association between authentic leadership, leader-member exchange, and employee’s psychological capital

The positive leadership focuses on facilitating the best human conditions. It unlocks the potential of the humans in the organization. It is grounded on the ethical values and uses human growth mindset. The positive leadership drives to a higher level of performance across an organization. The positive leadership results in bringing people together for a communal purpose. It permits employees to step up in such a way to generate value for all the stakeholders. The employees who hold positive leadership are reliable and obsessive individuals and their work is formed by a value-based foundation. The value-driven employees automatically enhance the performance of the organization even in the situations of pressure. It is automatically likely to achieve long-term commercial and social sustainability. This report focuses on the aspects of positive leadership. It defines the association between authentic leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX) and psychological capital. Further, it is defined to build psychological capital of some dissimilar types of employees such as professional, administrative, blue collar and white collar employees. The psychological capital states to a positive state of development of the employees. Finally, it is explained that why emotions significantly impact employee’s performance. The emotions can be of two types that are positive or negative. The positive emotions lead to a positive outcome whereas the negative emotions lead to negative results.

The authentic leaders behave as per the deep personal values and opinions. Their behavior builds integrity and gains trust as well as the respect of the followers. The authentic leadership developed as a formal leadership theory in reaction to the stimulating and stormy times, ethical corporate meltdowns and corporate scandals (Shamir and Eilam-Shamir, 2018). The qualities of the authentic leadership are knowing and being true to one. They are totally engrossed in their beliefs and core values.

The authentic leaders have a optimistic effect on follower performance. They can even influence follower performance. The authentic leaders behave in unity to accomplish openness and honesty in the relationship with followers. The behavior of the authentic leaders is taken as guidance by the followers such as high moral standards considered by the fairness, morality, and reliability. The values are shared with the followers through transparency, positivity and great ethical standards. It develops a sense of self-worth in the followers (Rego, Sousa, Marques, and e Cunha, 2014).

According to Gu, Tang and Jiang, 2015, the leadership member exchange focus on the exclusive relationship between a leader and follower. The leadership member exchange theory involves the scope to which leaders and followers improve a trusting, self-directed and communally beneficial relationship (Gu, Tang, and Jiang, 2015). It directs devotion to the significance of communication in leadership. The relationship between a leader and individuals develop over a period of time. These interfaces are even categorized as a high LMX or a low LMX exchange. The high LMX comprises relationship features whereas low LMX is considered by ‘exchanges’ based on the tasks. The low LMX followers are defined as less compatible and tend to obtain negligible support and trust from the supervisors. The followers attain benefits form the high LMX such as followers can accomplish more material, confidence, sinspiration, and concern from the leader. The followers even high involved and communicative than the out-group (Vidyarthi, Erdogan, Anand, Liden and Chaudhry, 2014).

How to build psychological capital of some different types of employees

As per the opinion of Iqbal, Saeed, Saeed and Manzoor, 2017, the psychological capital states to an individual’s optimistic state of development which is categorized by having confidence. The confidence is put in the essential efforts to succeed at stimulating tasks (Iqbal, Saeed, Saeed and Manzoor, 2017). It makes positive acknowledgment about succeeding now and in the future. An individual psychological development is depended on the four states like hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism. The performance is one of the outcomes of psychological capital which identifies whether individuals does their work properly and best of their abilities. If the individuals have a high level of efficiency, confidence, hope, and flexibility than they are likely to perform better in the job. They will be more innovative, have a clear career path and work better. The authentic leadership is definitely associated to the psychological capital. It is considered that physiological development is the key development change which is created by the authentic leaders among the followers. This change is faced due to the authentic leader’s effect on the organizational work culture (Laschinger, Wong, Cummings and Grau, 2014).

According to the Alqasmi, Manzoor and Hassan, 2015, the psychological capital are absolutely related to the organizational citizenship behaviors and it is destructively related to the counterproductive work behaviors and purposes to quit the organization (Alqasmi, Manzoor and Hassan, 2015). The professional employee’s psychological state of development is considered by the necessary efforts to prosper at challenging tasks. It is characterized by the succeeding now and in the future. As per Luthans, Luthans and Palmer, 2016, the psychological capital can be built among the professional employees by writing down specific goals which are required to be accomplished (Luthans, Luthans and Palmer, 2016). They can even rewrite this goal as a required approach goal along with what is wanted by the employees and what is not wanted by them. For instance, more relaxation and confidence is required by professional employees. The stress is related to the counterproductive work behavior. The professional employees can even brainstorm all kinds of actions taken to accomplish the goal. The ideas can be written down to overcome potential obstacles. The capacity such as self-efficacy has the capabilities to execute the courses of actions essential to managing prospective situations. It has a substantial impact on the outcome of the performance. The efficacy is regarded as an employee’s confidence about capabilities in mobilizing courses of action and the motivation required to perform the duty. The efficacy applies a person’s personal capabilities. The sources of efficacy advancement can be in the way employees will be more confident in the competence of achieving challenging objectives. The physiological capital can be built in the professionals by becoming skilled through observation. It is also influenced by factors like emotional, wellness, physiological or psychological awakening (Waller, Reitz, Poole, Riddell and Muir, 2017). Whereas the psychological capital can be built of the administrative employees by considering elements like intensity, direction, and persistence. By putting human resource into action, improving the efficiency of the employees, building friendly relationship and stability of the workforce leads to achieving organizational goals. There are some actions which help to build physiological capital among specifically administrative employees such as knowing the staff, giving feedback, educating employees, partnering with staff in achieving goals and using a reward system (Roche, Haar and Luthans, 2014). The duties of the administrative employees can be bookkeeping, planning, scheduling, and documentation. Their involvement helps to overcome the strategic issues which help to carry out the vision of the organization. It also helps in attaining a new level of engagement.

The impact of emotions on employee performance

The blue collar employees execute labor jobs and generally work with their hands. The skills obligatory to vary occupation to occupation. Some blue-collar occupations necessitate highly skilled personnel who are officially trained and specialized. Others require unskilled and low skilled workers in order to achieve simple tasks. Whereas the white-collar employees perform employment duties in the office atmosphere. They are extremely accomplished and formally expert professionals. The white-collar workers can be accountants, bankers, real estate agents and offer professional to the clients. Other white-collar workers can be architects, engineers who provide service to businesses, corporations, and agencies (Seibert, Sargent, Kraimer and Kiazad, 2017). The Psychological Capital of employees can be built by positive organizational behavior which emphasizes the positive approach. As per Ahmed, Mozammel and Ahmed, 2018, the blue-collar employees will be automatically positive if they are provided proper tools for the jobs and are involved in the decision-making process (Ahmed, Mozammel and Ahmed, 2018). The blue collar employees can be encouraged if they voice against their suggestions and opinions. The physiological capital can be built of the blue collar employees by involving them in the decision making process. They should be offered working conditions with improved processes. It even promotes to the trust and positive involvement of the employees. Evaluation of the performance and adequate feedback on the regular basis develop professionalism in a consistent manner. The chances like working on the special projects improve the skill set of the employees. The employees can be realized that they are contributing towards the success of the organization by compensating well. Psychological Capital can be built in the white collar employees by recognizing and appreciating them. As per the opinion of Cicekli and Kabasakal, 2017, the hard work and exceptional performance of the white collar employees should be appreciated by the managers in order to retain them (Cicekli and Kabasakal, 2017).  The financial security can be provided to the white-collar employees. Getting attention from the employees about their career growth leads to the enrichment of physiological capital. The seminars and training programs create a positive state of development which enriches them with confidence. It creates a positive sense of leadership.

The emotions of the leaders affect the employee’s performance. It has been considered that the happiness and sadness of the leaders can be beneficial to the employee’s performance. The happiness of leader enhances the employee’s creative performance whereas representation of the sadness enhances the analytical performance of the employees. According to Goswami, Nair, Beehr and Grossenbacher, 2016, the positive leaders tend to do better at the workplaces and open to taking information (Goswami, Nair, Beehr and Grossenbacher, 2016). The leader’s emotions affect the willingness of the employees to perform tasks such as working overtime when needed or helping a new worker.

The manager’s emotions impact an employee’s performance at the workplace. The manager’s emotions affect the employee’s overall job satisfaction, organizational commitment and employee’s customer’s service behavior. The manager’s emotions create social awareness and determine how employees can handle relationships. It also develops a sense of emotions in others. It also creates awareness of other’s feelings, needs, and concerns. The positive emotions of managers guide employees and groups. It creates a sense of development needs and boosting abilities. The managers initiate change in the organization. The positive emotions of the managers maintain a standard of excellence which persists in pursuing goals. Whereas the negative emotions of the managers create inflexibility in handling change and create obstacles in pursuing goals (Boyatzis, 2016).

The emotions critically affect the performance of the employees at the workplace. The awareness behind emotional intelligence is a ability through which employees delight emotions as appreciated data in directing a state. The emotions have significant impacts on job performance along with job performance, team spirit, decision-making skills, leadership, and turnover. The emotions in the workplace are deliberated important in relation to employees’ well-being and job gratification. The anger indicates to the aggression whereas sadness leads to the dissatisfaction with the job. The emotions can be either positive or negative. The lack of the positivity sucks the energy from any brainstorming session. The bad mood of the employees often put others in the same. The negativity can even infect good news (Li, Wang, Yang and Liu, 2016). It is said that emotions often travel from one person to another like a virus.

Conclusion 

The positive leadership has a role in the overall development of the employees. The authentic leadership behavior builds integrity and gains trust as well as the respect of the followers. The leadership member exchange guides responsiveness to the prominence of communication in leadership. The relationship between a leader and individuals cultivate over a period of time. These connections are even categorized as a high LMX or a low LMX exchange. The physiological capital can be constructed among the professional employees by writing down precise goals which are required to be accomplished. It is completely related to the organizational citizenship behaviors. From the above report, it is concluded that the physiological capital can be built in the professionals by becoming expert through observation. It is influenced by features like emotional, wellness, physiological or psychological awakening. Whereas, administrative employees can build physiological capital by considering elements like intensity, direction, and persistence. On the other side physiological capital of the blue collar employees can be built by involving them in the decision making process. They can be offered desired working conditions with improved processes. In the case of white-collar employees, physiological capital can be built by providing them with financial security. The emotions expressively impact an employee’s performance as positive emotions leads to greater results and vice versa.