The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the relationships between authentic leadership, positive psychological capital, job engagement, and change-oriented citizenship behavior in a sample of 416 employees from financial institutions and manuf...
The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the relationships between authentic leadership, positive psychological capital, job engagement, and change-oriented citizenship behavior in a sample of 416 employees from financial institutions and manufacturing companies. The main focus of this study is how the influential power of the authentic leadership affects positive psychological capital, job engagement, and change-oriented citizenship behavior. Until now, there have been many attempts to identify a leadership style which boosts employee morale and productivity. However, there is a question of whether and how the authentic leadership can impact an employee's change-oriented citizenship behavior.
Current challenging and stressful business environments throughout the world call for a different, moral, and authentic leadership perspective and style. Avolio et al. noted that "the unique stressor facing organizations throughout society today call for a new leadership approach aimed at restoring basic confidence, hope, optimism, resiliency, and self-efficacy." Former CEO of Medtronic, Bill George, states that "we need leaders who lead with purpose, values, and integrity; leaders who build enduring organizations, motivate their employees to provide superior customer service, and create long-term value for shareholders." Furthermore, Enron cases and unethical CEO managerial practices have been criticized while more ethical and authentic leadership has been emphasized. More specifically, the more a society or business environment becomes competitive and unethical, the more the organization and society need leaders to lead with authenticity and strong integrity to create a sustainable company. Therefore, authentic leadership is conceived as a root of positive leadership, which can deal with unethical problems of organization.
This study attempts to examine the effects of authentic leadership on change-oriented citizenship behavior through a mediator of positive psychological capital and job engagement. Through research findings, the study proposed a theoretical model which was then surveyed to 416 employees to identify empirical relationships. Employee engagement is an individual's attachment to their job, the satisfaction with the task itself, and their enthusiasm for work. Positive psychological capital is characterized by four components : self-efficacy, resiliency, optimism, and hope. Change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior is a special type of organizational citizenship. It is extra role performance, and it is considered one of the important organizational effectiveness variables to change an organization.
Specifically, this study tested a proposed model of authentic leadership which was compared with other alternative models. Furthermore, this study found that authentic leadership is positively related to positive psychological capital, employee engagement and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. This means that authentic leadership played a vital role in enhancing the employees' intrinsic motivation, positive attitudes, and extra role performance.
The main findings were the following: (1) Authentic leadership is associated with positive psychological capital and employee engagement. (2) Positive psychological capital has influence on job engagement and an impact on change-oriented OCB. (3) Employee engagement has influence on change-oriented OCB, and authentic leadership is associated with change-oriented OCB, (4) The relationship between authentic leadership and change-oriented OCB is mediated by positive psychological capital and job engagement. Research results show that all hypotheses are significant.