Positive Leader: Authentic Leadership, Psychological Capital and Leader-Member Exchange

Running head: POSITIVE LEADER
Positive Leader
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Table of Contents
1. Literature Review...................................................................................................................2
1.1. Background.....................................................................................................................2
1.2. Defining leadership and its different perspectives..........................................................2
1.3. Authentic leadership........................................................................................................2
1.4. Psychological Capital......................................................................................................3
1.5. Leader-Member exchange...............................................................................................4
1.6. Relationship in between Authentic leadership, Psychological Capital and Leader-
Member exchange..................................................................................................................5
1.7. Psychological Capital of different types of employees...................................................6
1.8. Role of emotions on employee performance..................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................9

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1. Literature Review
1.1. Background
This section of the paper would deal with the various literary works which explain the
relation in between authentic leadership, Psychological Capital (PsyCap) and Leader-Member
exchange (LMX) of the employees working in organisation. It would elaborate on shedding
light on the different perspectives on this topics by several different scholars. Along with this,
a special focus would be laid on the way of building psychological capital of different types
of employees as well as on the role of emotions on employee performance.
1.2. Defining leadership and its different perspectives
The concept of leadership is defined differently by different people. As per Covington
(2015), it is the “process of influencing the activities of an organised group toward goal
achievements”. With the same, Misati and Walumbwa (2018) have defined it is the potential
of an individual to reach a desired and common goal through combining the efforts and hard
work of oneself with that of the others. Moreover, Leadership is considered to be the art of
inducing the compliance as well. Hence, there are diverse view point and perspectives on the
concept of leadership. However, the most accepted one is that leadership refers to the action
and ability of leading a group or team in order to attain a common goal.
1.3. Authentic leadership
Authentic leadership refers to an approach towards leadership that lay emphasis on
building legitimacy of leaders by means of honest relationship along with his followers that
value their input and this is basically built on ethical foundation. With the same, the authentic
leaders refers to the positive leaders who have truthful concepts that promote openness.
According to Misati and Walumbwa (2018), Authentic leadership refers to “a type of
management style in which people act in a real, genuine and sincere way that is true to who

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they are as individuals”. It is also to note that this approach is one if the significant construct
in the theory of leadership. Authentic leaders are always considered to be true and self-aware.
With the same, they are also considered to be self-actualised individuals who are completely
aware of their limitations, compatibilities and emotions. Furthermore, Shamir and Eilam-
Shamir (2018) have regarded the concept of authentic leadership as a leadership style that
helps in fostering the well-balanced processing of the information gathered and ensuring
greater self-awareness in the leaders. Also, it fosters development and growth in the leaders
as well as their sub-ordinates. They have claimed that authentic leadership makes the leaders
highly aware of how and what they think and why and how they behave in context to things
in which they operate. Steffens et al. (2016) too, in this context have stated that this kind of
leadership is a multidimensional construct that is composed of balanced processing, self-
awareness, internalisation and relational transparency of both ethical and moral perspective.
1.4. Psychological Capital
Psychological Capital, also called PsyCap is the positive psychological state of
growth and development which is distinguished by having a powerful conviction for putting
in the necessary efforts to be successful in challenging tasks. As stated by Misati and
Walumbwa (2018), Psychological Capital of an employee working in an organisation is
characterised by his level of Hope, Self-Efficacy, Resilience and Optimism (HERO). These
four positive capabilities are regarded as the four fundamental characteristics present within
the employees and this deals with their psychological capital. With the same, this deals in
developing his or her psychological capital as well. According to Covington (2017),
“Positive psychological capital represents positive psychological states that contribute to
higher levels of effectiveness and flourishing in organizations”. Notwithstanding this fact, it
is to note that positive organisational behaviour integrate a positive psychology into the
organisation among employees with an intention of enhancing and improving the individual