Relationship in between authentic leadership, leader-member exchange and the psychological capital of employees

Authentic leadership refers to approach in relation to leadership that emphasizes on building the legitimacy of the leader. It can be done with the help of maintaining of honest relationship with the followers by building on the aspect of ethical foundation. The authentic leaders act as positive people who helps in promoting the aspect of openness in an organization. Leader member exchange is indicative of relationship based approach that focusses on the aspect of two-way relationship that exists between the leaders and that of the followers (Shamir and Eilam-Shamir 2018).

Psychological capital refers to the development state which is characterized by the elements of self-efficacy, hope along with resiliency. This literature review discusses about the relationship that exists in between authentic leadership, psychological capital and that of leader member exchange. This literature review also elaborates on how to build up the psychological capital of different kinds of employees like professionals and the administrative employees. It also discusses regarding the building of psychological capital of blue colour and the white collar employees. It also talks about how to build psychological capital of different generational cohort along with the people belonging to various ethnicities. It also talks about the significance of emotions on the performance of the employees in an organization.

Relationship in between authentic leadership, leader member exchange and the psychological capital of employees

Authentic leadership focuses on the aspect of moral quasi-traits that is originated from the value standards of a person. Authentic leadership equips the leaders with a kind of thinking pertaining to their own behaviour. According to Leroy et al. (20150, authentic leadership lays stress on the intrinsic qualities that a leader has which is more salient as compared to exhibited behaviour of leader. The concept of authentic leadership extends beyond that of authenticity of leader that helps in encompassing authentic relation with the followers.

It has been argued by Wang et al. (2014) that positive psychological capacities that an authentic leader has helps in fostering positive behaviour in the employees of an organization. Authentic leadership paves the path for exchange taking place in between leader and the follower and it helps in the self-development of the employees of an organization. Authentic leadership paves the path for that of leader-member exchange as it looks beyond behaviour of a leader and lays more stress on the aspect of the followers of the leader that helps in facilitating the aspect of leader-member exchange in an organization. According to Laschinger and Fida (2014),

Building the psychological capital of employees

authentic leadership springs from the self-determination theory that lays emphasis on idea that human nature will show persistent positive feature by exhibiting effort along with agency. Authentic leaders shows consistency in relation to values and the beliefs which has positive consequence on the psychological well-being of the employees of an organisation. The authentic leader displaying good values can make the employees psychologically happy that would be reflected on their jobs. The leader-member exchange taking place can help in building psychological capital of employees that can lead to growth of the organization.

Building the psychological capital of employees

Building psychological capital of professionals and the administrative employees

The psychological capital of the professionals can be built in an organisation by nurturing the element of trust within an organisation. The leader can build the psychological capital of the professionals by the help of the aspect of relational transparency along with the ethical perspective. It has been stated by Sendjaya et al. (2016) that the authentic leader engaging in the process of balanced processing can instill positive behaviour in the professionals that can augment performance of the employees in an organization.

The leader should be able to prove authenticity by taking recourse to the actions that can help in developing the capacity of the professions working within the framework of an organization. The psychological capital of the professions can be built with the help of the aspect of dominant trust that can help in fostering positive performance of employees.

The public organisations need servants who would be dedicated towards their work. According to Hirst et al. (2016) that the positive leader should focus on building the strength of the administrative employees that can help in bringing about positive outcome for the employees working in an organisation. The authentic leader should instill dimension of hope that can help the employees in relation to their engagement in the organisation. The authentic leader should provide hope to the administrative employees that can act as a positive factor that can help the employees in reaching their organisational goal.

Building of emotional labour in employees

It has been found with the help of research that in the event of the service provider being able to identify with the work role emotional labour can result into increasing well-being of the employees in an organisation. Emotion Regulation Theory has stated that emotional labour can give rise to burnout along with job dissatisfaction of the employees in an organisation. Suppressing the emotions at the time of social interaction can result into overworking of the nervous systems of the employees in an organization (Conway 2015).

Building psychological capital of professionals and the administrative employees

The authentic leader should show the element of emotion regulation that can help them in controlling the behaviour of the employees of an organization. It has been found with the help of research that level of the job demand can have an impact on the stress that are experienced by the employees of an organization. The authentic leader should have control over the aspect of emotional displays that can help in facilitating exchange taking place in between the leader and the employees of an organization.

Psychological Capital of Blue Collar and the White Collar Employees

White colour refers to a person who carries out professional along with managerial work. The jobs related to white collar can be carried out either in an office or within the administrative setting. It has been argued by Martin et al. (2016) that the people having need of the power can teach and provide encouragement to the others that can help in achieving their objective.

The authentic leader should take care of the fact that the knowledge workers are assigned the tasks that can help them in experiencing a feeling of achievement. The Needs Theory of David McClelland states that the knowledge workers should be motivated by need of achievement that can contribute in increasing the psychological capital of the white collar employees working within an organisation. The management of a knowledge organization should focus on the aspect of continuous innovation that can help in increasing the efficiency of the employees working within an organisation.

Blue collar worker on the other hand refers to the working class people who are instrumental in performing manual labour. Blue collar work involves the works related to manufacturing, commercial fishing, food processing along with recycling. The two factor theory of Frederick Herzberg focuses on the aspect of motivation along with the hygiene factors. This theory focusses on the importance of working conditions that can help in satisfying the employees working in the sector of blue collar. According to Wang et al. (2015), authentic leader should be able to create the ideal conditions that can help in building on the aspect of psychological capital of the blue collar employees working in an organization. Hygiene factors concentrates on fulfilment of the human needs that can increase the efficiency of work of the employees.

Psychological capital of various generational cohort

Generational cohort refers to group of the individuals who have to undergo identical political along with cultural events. They share the same kind of values and they have the same kind of attitude in relation to life and work. The people in the different cohorts can acquire the same kind of personalities owing to the factor of shared experiences. According to Cropanzano, Dasborough and Weiss (2017), demographic changes taking place within the workplace can cause the business to address the issue of employee diversity. Authentic leader should be able to harness skills of the old workers that can indirectly help in developing skills of the younger employees working in an organisation.

Building of emotional labor in employees

It has been argued by Breevaart et al. (2015) that the leader should be able to create a flexible workplace that can help in managing talent among the various generations in an organisation. The leaders should be competent in the various mechanics at work that can increase the psychological capital of the employees working in an organization. According to Herman and Dasborough (2016), high employee turnover can occur in the event of the management of an organisation not being able to address the unique needs of the different generation of workers. Training along with development opportunities should be provided to the employees of various generations by the leadership of an organization that can increase the psychological capital of the employees of an organization.

Building Psychological Capital of employees of different ethnicities

The cross-cultural interaction taking place in an organization can pave the path for negative outcome like conflict along with failure. On the other hand, cross-cultural interaction can lead to positive outcome like that of increased responsibility. An authentic leader should be able to instill adaptive capacity in the employees that can help them in overcoming the aspect of stressful events. According to Bouckenooghe, Zafar and Raja (2015), a leader should be cross-culturally resilient that can help in encouraging employees of different cultural backgrounds in an organisation. It has been argued by Karatepe and Karadas (2015) that resilience can help in increasing the performance of the employees and it can promote the aspect of pro-active learning within an organisation.

Cross cultural training should be provided by the leader that can help in carrying out the process of exchange in between a leader and his employees in an organisation. Psychological training should be provided by the leader to the employees  that can help in building psychological capital of employees coming from different cultural background.

Effect of emotions on performance of employees

The management scholars have pointed out to the fact that there exist a relationship between the factor of emotional intelligence and that of effective leadership in an organisation. The organizations in the present age are embracing the concept of emotional intelligence that can help an organization in sustaining in the competitive environment. According to Jung and Yoon (2015), leadership can encourage the individuals along with the teams for giving their best that can help in the achieving of the desired result. It can be said that the process of leadership is emotional and the leaders being able to recognize the emotional states of the followers can help in managing the emotional states of the followers. It has been argued by Li et al. (2015) .

Psychological Capital of Blue Collar and the White Collar Employees

that the emotional intelligence can act as the determinant in relation to effective leadership and the emotional intelligent leaders should be able to promote the aspect of effectiveness at various levels within an organization. It has been found that there exist positive correlation between the factor of emotional intelligence and leadership outcome within an organisation. The leaders being able to manage the emotions of the leaders can increase the efficiency of performance of employees working in an organisation. According to Rizvi (2016), emotionally intelligent leaders can perform better within the organization because they are more committed to the organization. Positive emotions demonstrated by the leader can instill enthusiasm and co-operating in the employees that can increase the overall performance of the employees in an organization.

Conclusion

The concept of authentic leadership can help in building aspect of legitimacy of the leader. Authentic leader exhibiting positive psychological capacities can instill positive behaviour within the employees working in an organisation. Exchange taking place in between leader and employees can help in the developing of employees in an organization. Trust should be built by the leader of an organization that can augment the performance of employees in an organization. Relational transparency can prove to be of great benefit in facilitating leader-member exchange taking place within the framework of an organization.

Leader being competent in different mechanics at that of the workplace can augment psychological capital pertaining to employees within an organisation. Adaptive capacity should be possessed by the leader that can help him in overcoming stressful situations taking place within an organisation. A leader being cross-culturally resilient can encourage the various employees within an organisation. Leaders should be able to recognize emotional states pertaining to the followers that can manage emotional states in relation to followers. The leaders who are emotionally intelligent are found to be more committed to the values in an organization. Positive emotions of the leader can help in instilling enthusiasm in the employees that can augment employee performance in an organization.

References

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