Relationship Between Authentic Leadership, Leader-Member Exchange, And Psychological Capital

Leadership and its Importance

The concept of leadership is the one which has been subjected to change in the recent times and various organizations try to follow the kind of leadership style that suits best the needs of their business (Luthans, Youssef and Avolio 2015). Furthermore, within the cannon of the business world the concept of positive leadership has gained much significance and this is one of the major reasons why the majority of the business enterprises are trying to follow this particular style of leadership for the process of their business (Hmieleski, Carr and Baron 2015). It is significant to note that since the traditional times various diverse kinds of leadership styles have been followed by the leaders and also the business organizations like the servant theory of leadership, autocratic leadership, the Great man theory of leadership and others (Wang et al. 2014). However, the common entity among these theories of leadership is the fact that almost all of them put the leader involved in the process at the centre stage and totally neglected the affairs of the subordinates and the followers (Abbas et al. 2014). Herein lies the major difference between these traditional theories of leadership and the modern ones followed by the majority of the leaders of the contemporary times. One of the major advantages of this particular style of leadership is the fact that it helps a particular leader to align the objectives as well as the goals of an individual employee with the overall organizational objectives and goals (Wang et al. 2014). Furthermore, the process of enhancement of the performance of the employees and the organizational performance is achieved through the building up of effective relationships between the leaders and the employees (Abbas et al. 2014). This is one of the major factors that had helped this particular style of leadership to gain such extensive prominence in the recent times. This paper will focus on the concept of leadership and the performance of the employees and will at the same time show the correlation between them. In addition to this, the paper will also try to show the correlation between the concept of leadership and psychological capital.

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The concept of leadership is mainly concerned with motivating as well as leading an individual or a group of individuals towards the attainment of the specific goal or the objective that they have set out to achieve (Zhun et al. 2018). The business enterprises, thus, take the help of the process of leadership for the achievement of the specific targets or the goals that they have set out to achieve (Zhun et al. 2018). In the light of this particular fact it is seen that various innovative kinds of leadership theories and styles have become important within the cannon of the present day business world like the authentic leadership, transformational style of leadership, Leader Member Exchange (LMX) and others (Bouckenooghe, Zafar and Raja 2015). Furthermore, at the same time it is pertinent to note that the effectiveness of each of these theories as well as styles of leadership depends on the context and also the purpose for which it is being used. However, the common factor which lies between all these theories and styles of leadership is the fact that almost of them emphasizes on taking into effective consideration the psychological needs of the followers and also the establishment of an effective two way relationship with them (Bouckenooghe, Zafar and Raja 2015). The leaders of the present are thus required to have various kinds of skills like effective people management skills, motivational skills, working towards the wellbeing of the followers, taking into effective consideration the psychological capital of the subordinates and others.

Leadership and the Organization

The primary idea behind the use of the different theories as well as styles of leadership is to improve the organizational performance by means of improving the individual performances of the followers (Carmona–Halty et al. 2018). Motivation is one of the best possible entities which are being used by the various leaders for the improvement of the productivity of the subordinates (Carmona–Halty et al. 2018). The various employees of an organization can be seen as its building blocks and it is on them that the overall organizational performance depends (Roche, Haar and Luthans 2014). Thus, the role of a leader to guide these employees of the organization towards the achievement of the goals or the objectives set out by the organization becomes all the more important.

The organization Azure Advertisement Ltd belongs to the advertisement industry and mainly caters to the advertisement needs of its clients. The organization realizing the importance of the correlation between employee performance and the leadership style followed by the concerned organization follows the LMX model of leadership (Paterson, Luthans and Jeung 2014). Taking the help of this particular model of leadership the different employees of the organization are provided the chance to air their opinion about the important decisions made by the concerned organization and at the same time to share their feedbacks regarding the same (Paterson, Luthans and Jeung 2014). This has a significant impact on the performance level of the employees since by providing the employees of the organization a say in the important decisions of the organization the concerned organization follows the policy of shared liability and this has a significant impact on the performance of the employees (Abbas and Raja 2015). The employees are not only made to realize that it their organization but at the same they also realize that the important decisions are being made by them and thus it becomes all the more important for them to perform in a much better manner (Abbas and Raja 2015). The use of this particular model of leadership has at the same time helped the concerned organization to enhance the commitment level of the employees and thereby reduced the attrition level of the employees. Moreover, the use of this particular model of leadership at the same time also improves not only the engagement level among the different employees but at the same time between the employees and the organization as well. This in turn has considerable improved the job satisfaction level of the employees which is pertinently manifested in the performance or the productivity level of the employees and also in the overall organizational performance of the organization. Thus, it can be said that the concepts of leadership and the employee performance are correlated with each other.

The concept of psychological capital has gained a significant amount of prominence within the cannon of the present day business world and it is a reflection of this particular fact that not only the leaders but also the various organizations are increasingly taking the help of this particular concept for influencing the performance of the employees (Karatepe and Karadas 2015). The concept of psychological capital refers to the feedbacks, positive attributes, criticism and others which have a direct impact on the performance of the employees (Siu, Cheung and Lui 2015). In this particular context it needs to be said that the positive attitude of the leader becomes very important since it turn helps in the inculcation of the same in the followers as well. Furthermore, at the same time it needs to be said that recent researches have shown that the concept of psychological capital is also related to the process of the identification of the psychological capital, the development of these entities and at the same time also the effective implementation of these entities (Siu, Cheung and Lui 2015). Moreover, these are at the same time associated with the performance level of the individuals as well. Recent researches have shown that the performance level of the employees is directly related to the style of leadership that the organization is following and also the organizational culture of the concerned organization as well. Furthermore, it is seen that the organizational culture of a particular organization depends on the psychology of the individuals of the organization and this in turn depends on the effective manner in which the organization and the leaders are being able to capitalize on the psychological capital of the employees and at the same time use them in an effective manner for the growth of the organization (Paek et al. 2015).

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Employee performance is a concept which is the fulcrum point of the majority of the organizations of the present times. The overall performance level of an organization depends on these individual performances of the employees. It is with this particular objective that the various organizations are taking the help of diverse kind of methods so that they can improve the performance of their organization. One of the most effective strategies to achieve this particular end is to make the most of the psychological capital of the employees (Jung and Yoon 2015). It thus becomes important for the organizations to not only identify the psychological capital of the employees but at the same time on the basis of these capitals and also depending on the capabilities that the concerned individual has give him or her the kind of tasks which they would be able to complete in the best possible manner (Jung and Yoon 2015). In addition to these, the role of the leader and the kind of leadership style which is being followed also contributes in a significant manner towards the enhancement of the organizational and the employee performance. For example, recent researches have suggested that the use of authentic and LMX theories of leadership not only enhances the job satisfaction level of the individuals within an organizational but at the same time contributes in a positive manner towards the performance level of these individuals as well. In this particular context, mention needs to be made about the concept of positive leaders (Youssef?Morgan and Luthans 2015). One of the most important job roles of the various positive leaders is to synchronize the overall objectives and the goals with those of the employees and thus in turn helps in the improvement of the performance level of the employees (Youssef?Morgan and Luthans 2015). This is important since synchronicity of the goals and the objectives would the employees towards the achievement of the goals and the objectives set out by the concerned organization because at times it is seen that the individuals within an organization just try to achieve their own goals and objectives rather than the overall organizational ones. A positive leader by integrating the two helps the employees to understand that the growth of the organization is related to their own growth and thus they should strive for the achievement of the organizational targets rather than their own individual targets (Bergheim et al. 2015).

In the present times it is seen that the different employees have different psychological capitals depending on the kind that they are required and thus it becomes all the more important for the leaders as well as the organizations to understand these psychological capitals of the employees and use them in the most effective manner (Luthans et al. 2014). Resilience, hope, optimism, efficiency and others are some of the important entities of the psychological capital of the professionals who are a part of the Azure Advertisement Ltd (Luthans et al. 2014). On the other hand, it is seen that the administrative employees of the same organization have different psychological capital which comprises of the entities of dominance, self-efficiency, high level of confidence and others (Franklin, Yanar and Feller 2015). In addition to these, it is seen that there are various employees of the organization who are required to develop emotional content for the clients and thus can be said to do emotional labor and the entities of feelings, psychological attachment and others and it is generally seen that these psychological entities help them in a significant manner to complete the jobs assigned to them (Franklin, Yanar and Feller 2015). At the same time within the framework of the organization it is also seen that there some blue collar and white collar employees. The psychological capital for the blue collar employees are hard-work, resilience and others whereas for the white collar employees they are achievement, success and others (Avey 2014). At the same time a distinction between the different generational cohorts and different ethnicities can also be made on the same line. Thus, it is seen that the for the cohorts tradition, continuity and others are important values whereas for the ethnicities opportunity, hope and others are important factors (Franklin, Yanar and Feller 2015). It can be said that the different employees within the framework of the above mentioned organization have different psychological capitals and the success of the organization is likely to depend on the effectiveness with which it is being able to use these different psychological capitals.

The organization under discussion here in order to further enhance the performance of the individual employees and also the organizational one can take the help of the concepts of effective leadership and psychological capital. It is true that the organization under discussion here takes the help of these concepts however the implementation of authentic leadership and the development of effective relationship between the leaders and the employees would help the concerned organization in a significant manner. This would help the organization to improve the job satisfaction level of the employees, reduce attrition rate and thereby improve employee and organizational performance. Furthermore, the effective use of psychological capital would at the same time help them in a significant manner.   

The concepts of leadership and psychological have been the topics of various researches since the traditional times and at the same time voluminous amount of literature have been written on them. However, very works have tried to show the correlation between the two and also the manner in which they are related to the concept of employee performance. The proposed research thus by focusing on this particular correlation will be a new one which the future researches not can depend upon but at the same time can add further significant information to.

Conclusion

To conclude, the concept of employee performance has become the central focus of the various organizations of the present times on the score that it is directly related to the organizational performance of the concerned organization. It is significant to note that there are two important factors that play an important role in the process of the employee performance, namely, the style of leadership that the concerned organization is following and also the effective use of the concept of psychological capital. Thus, it is seen that the majority of the business enterprises of the present times are increasingly taking the help of these concepts for the improvement of the individual performances of the employees and also of the overall organization itself. Furthermore, at the same time it is also seen that the effective use of these two concepts also improves the job satisfaction level of the employees and reduces the attrition rate of the organization. Therefore, it would be apt to say that the success or the failure of a particular organization depends on the effective use of these two concepts.

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