Literature review

Asadullah, et al., (2016) it is a widely known phenomena that good leader requires discipline, foresight and coordination while on the other hand, great leaders come with an appended dose of strong positivity. Controlled strength although is admiring, it fails in inspiring or influencing teams and individuals in a way comparing to a positive force can. The focus of a positive leader is on relationships and not on roles. Inside a workplace or community, every person has the potential of becoming a positive force. A positive leader constantly matches his/her personal values and beliefs on giving shape to something for bettering their world. In organizations people can work towards building a workplace that is precisely atypical however, this opportunity is often missed further costing the business, employees and communities. Leaders according to Cote (2017) can learn about improving and creating a workplace that attracts great employees, managers and clients through assessment, self-reflection and executive coaching.

Leader by default have the tendency of looking for the biggest problems, obstacles and weaknesses for solving at workplaces. Taking a deficit approach to leadership is quite natural because humans as averse to risks. In times of uncertainties, a positive leader can raise the confidence levels of his/her followers besides instilling a sense of positivism for the future that otherwise might be missing. But with rapidly changing and increasingly competitive business environment, there are a number of key questions that come to the fore. What under challenging circumstances makes successful leaders? How a strong, visionary leader can be identified? And to what extent engagement and success are inspired by a positive leader over the long term?

The focus of this essay revolves around analysing the leadership and/or employee performance at workplace and comparing that with the positive leadership and Psychological Capital literature. Organizations cultivate a ‘high relationship’ amidst the leaders and employees for the attainment of their pre-set objectives and goals. According to Glasø, et al., (2018) the performance of employees in order to transform productivity into reality is entirely dependent on the style adopted by leaders. People voluntarily under normal circumstances join organizations owing to their personal needs and aspiration, and certainly not because of organizational goal. Therefore, a leader tries of motivating the employees for working higher within organizations while helping them in realizing their personal aspirations. The essay will be outlined into literature review where different journals of the theme will be critically analysed and synthesised for supporting the argument for analyzing the leadership and/or employee performance at workplace and comparing it with the positive leadership and Psychological Capital  followed by concluding the learning.

According to Brandi (2014) the best way perhaps for understanding the term positive leader is starting with what it is not, and it certainly is not the opposite of a negative leader. The positive leader concept in fact was introduced by Kim Cameron, Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and co-founder of the Centre for Positive Organizational Scholarship. Leaders have a weighty responsibility of making the working atmosphere a better place. By enacting as a positive leader to focus on enhancing the “positive capacity” of a company eventually benefits customers, workforces, community and maybe even the world besides self. Cameron further emphasizes that an “affirmative bias” can be seen in positive leaders, focusing on strengths and capabilities besides asserting the highness of human potentials with the help of creating more “positive capacity” by making use of calculated strategies for invariably give rise to more positive experiences at workplaces. For creating new positive outcomes a positive leader builds on negativity and perceives it as opportunity for fuelling change. The ratio of positive to negative experiences is roughly 3:1 that needs to be attained by positive leaders for shifting from being languish to strong going. Having positive experiences that are three times more than every negative develops a sense of feel good in employees further making them more creative, quick problem solver besides making their immune systems stronger. It has been observed that significant contributions are made by more positive emotion in reversing the detrimental impacts on the behaviour of employees at work along with giving rise to more flexibility, self-reliance and aspirations. According to Reb, et al., (2018) the bottom line is that when an atmosphere where employees feel good about themselves and the role played by them in bigger missions of organizations are created by leaders, the tendency of feeling good at work develops, making them feeling happy, the outcome of which will ultimately get reflected on delivering great customer experiences thereby, securing best competitive advantage that a business will be having in the marketplace.

Leadership and/or employee performance at workplace

According to Perez (2018), leadership by most is associated with a certain position or job title however, for having followers one needs more than just a title on the desk. A person’s ability of influencing others in achieving better outcomes for organizations or groups is widely contemplated as a true leadership. One can see a strong sense of self in the most effective leaders. Qualities making other people wanting to follow them are comprehended by them besides knowing how these qualities should be adjusted during certain situations. Effective leaders according to Iordanoglou (2018), are those who are aware of their own strengths and limitations, produce and efficaciously convey a vision that is constructive and practical, motivating and inspiring employees in reaching their potentials, looking ahead of individual  self-interest and supporting others in doing the same, fairly and objectively anticipating and dealing with conflicts, demonstrating self-confidence, regarding and sustaining values in personal and that of the organization, are fair-minded, rational, and sympathetic besides ingraining faith and acting invariably. Reasonable goals are developed and articulated by such leaders besides holding people that includes themselves liable. Moreover, they are also prepared in making difficult decisions and striking a balance between the sensitivity of individual needs with that of the needs of organizations. Not only their power and authority is recognized by the employees in a workplace but they willingly accept and follow these trusted leaders.

According to Marques (2015), the term leadership has been defined by researchers as interpersonal influence that is exercised in certain circumstances, directed with the help of communication process towards achieving the functional goals. Different styles of leadership exist within a working environment where the advantages and disadvantages of each style vary from one another, and are largely dependent on tasks to perform. Which type of leadership suits a firm can only be determined from its culture and organizational goals. Effective leaders according to Gandolfi and Stone (2017), adopt one or a combination of multiple leadership styles for ensuing they gain success in providing guidance and inspiration to employees. Successful leaders have the potential to drive in creativity and productivity at workplaces while the bottom line of a business is improved. It is not always necessarily mandatory that effective leaders will correlate with being a likable person. Some may be loved by their employees while others may not be regarded highly personally however, through distinctive leadership styles might play a great role in pushing their company towards a positive direction.

According to Covella, et al., (2017), from different literatures focusing on the subject, researchers have outlined five different types of leadership styles namely Autocratic, Laissez-Faire, Transformative, Democratic leadership and Transactional leaderships. Democratic leadership style is widely practiced in the workplace of ABC Company. It has been further articulated by researchers that employees are influenced by democratic leaders in a way uniform with the basic democratic principles and processes like deliberation, equal participation, inclusiveness and self-determination.  According to Al Rahbi, Khalid and Khan (2017), group decisions and discussions are actively encourage and stimulated under democratic leadership having characteristics like influential, helpful, knowledgeable, good listener, encouraging, guiding, respecting and situation-centred. The democratic style of leadership centralises more on people besides having greater interaction within a group. The impact of democratic leadership style according to Miloloža (2018), on the performance of employees at ABC Company is significantly positive in terms of encouraging innovation, teamwork, and creativity. Moreover, employees are often engaged with projects contributing in enhancing their performances, job satisfaction and productiveness. Although no suggestions are made by the democratic leaders, the opinions of others are frequently enquired. Simultaneously participation of all team members in final decision makings and in the development of entire process for reaching their goals is also encouraged. The prime advantage of democratic leadership style is how the evolution of some additional leaders who mainly sere the companies are facilitated by it besides having active involvement on everyone’s part in the team.

According to Choudhary, et al., (2017), at ABC Company, team members are encouraged and invited in playing an important part in the process of making decisions thus, leaving a positive influence on employee engagement in ABC Company, cultivating a feeling of discretionary power and confidence in them for getting their job done and different decision makings thus, ensuring better performances. However, the ultimate power lies in the hands of democratic leaders, guiding them on what and how to do, and advices, encounter and advocacies are also communicated by the employees as greater two-way dialogue is a common feature of its working environment. The employee turnover rate is also lesser under democratic leaders. This is because it is evident from different literatures that relationship amid democratic leadership style and turnover intentions is significantly negative, which means that the more employees perceive their leaders as democratic, lesser is their intention of quitting. Democratic leadership has also made significant contributions in improving employees’ commitment and wellbeing in the workplace. The democratic leaders at ABC ensure that jobs are properly designed in terms of relationship collection of tasks and employees reorganization, eventually leading to enhanced commitment and wellbeing.

According to Boykins, et al., (2013), democratic leadership just like positive leadership encourages open communication at workplaces, giving employees the confidence of freely discussing any problem and issue with their managers and/or leaders, be it related to work or personal. Both firmly believe in creating and providing their team members a safer environment for experimenting with newer ideas, learning and sharing of knowledge and information, and challenging the status quo. Both democratic and positive leaderships believe in cultivating genuine relationships with all employees and taking care of them irrespective of how they perform; there exist no “in groups” or “out groups,” just “us.” Moreover, active participation of employees in decision-making process is promoted by both types of leaders.

According to Xu, Liu and Chung (2017), psychological capital with its four pillars namely Hope, Efficacy, Resilience, and Optimism (HERO) are related with both job and life satisfaction. With every component having its own characteristics and interventions, the concept is greater than the sum of its parts. PsyCap based on appreciation and positive emotions is a core construct for well-being and growth and a source of competitive adva’ The high levels of PsyCap positively influence the employees’ well-being, decision-makings, confidence, efficiencies, commitment, engagement and turnover just like democratic leadership.

Positive leadership according to Sahoo, et al., (2015), keep motivating the workforces in working hard for attaining goals thus, increasing employee performances. Their behaviours directly influence employees making them feel good, raising their performance for meeting the plan. One of the key outcomes derived from the personality of a positive leader is high performance. The job performance of employees is also affected by the positive psychological capabilities of the people into the workplace. Job satisfaction and Organizational commitment are two important work attitudes of employees where the former is a subjective measure of worker attitudes and later is the psychological attachment or effective commitment employees form in relation to their identification and involvement in ABC Company. Both are contemplated as antecedents of employee performance. According to Chen (2015), the ability of PsyCap in improving the employees’ performance has been stressed by available literatures. The four pillars of PsyCap influence employee performance. Employees with higher self-efficacy believe that they can succeed hence, put more efforts on executing assigned tasks eventually giving better performances further demonstrating the correlation of self-efficacy with job performance (JP). Hope a positive predictor of JP and hopeful employees are more effective comparing to others. Better performances are given by efficacious and hopeful employees because they accept challenges and put more efforts in achieving goals. Optimism correlates positively with performance because employees believing to succeed are less likely in giving up tasks assigned and putting more efforts in accomplishing goals. The relationship between resilience and employee performance is also significant.

According to Bouckenooghe, Zafar and Raja (2015), the workplace of ABC Company has many similarities aligning with the potential possibilities of recent studies on positive leadership/psychological capital. During a period of change, democratic leadership style practiced at the workplace ensures employees accommodate with the operational improvements besides enabling higher productivity by using consensus decision-making style similar to the significance of positive leadership in organizational change having the possibility of directly influencing employees’ behaviour. For assuring that employees open up to change and possibilities, the best way to lead them is by becoming a Positive Leader in order to make a difference in productiveness, satisfaction and happiness at the work. Within a dynamic organizational setting of ABC, hopeful, efficacious, resilient and optimistic employees are more likely in “weathering the storm”. The values of positive leadership such as decisiveness, integrity and honesty have a trickle-down effect on both professionals and administrative employees, encouraging them in working harder for a positive leader.

Meanwhile the emotional labour of a positive leader influence the employees when they interact in support of attaining the desired goals of ABC thus, having more positive work attitudes and higher performance. Emotional labour is used by used by the leaders for expressing emotions appropriate situationally. According to Marieta and Boshoff (2018), positive leadership at ABC unleashes the potential of blue collar employees through encouragement, motivation and inspiration by making them feel like they matter besides investing in their growth and development while the potentials of white collar employees are discharged by increasing their productivity by analysing their jobs and its contribution, assessing their performance and outcomes, and promoting permanent learning and training. Different generational cohorts (Veterans, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials) at ABC are more open to the democratic forms of leadership thus, establishing positive correlations between leadership and employee satisfaction levels, influencing participation and decision-makings.

Conclusion

Thus it can be concluded that to ensure that leaders lead effectively and move ABC’s workplace towards increased effectiveness, it is needed that managers’ give their focus on cultivating positive relationships with their subordinates besides developing trust which can be done by adopting self-centred approach where leaders need to learn revealing their real self to colleagues further making them more approachable and becoming a catalyst to build positive relationships. Further it is evident that focus should be given on building the psychological capital by developing the leaders with genuine work to improve the health and well-being of employees, which has a direct influence on increased Psychological Capital.

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