Literature Review: Positive Leadership

This literature review explores the relationships between authentic leadership, leader-member exchange, and psychological capital in the contemporary global organizational scenario. It discusses the perceptions and theories present in the aspects of development of psychological capital for different types of employees and analyses the reasons behind the influences of emotions on the performances of the employees. The review also provides insights on how to develop psychological capital in organizations.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW: POSITIVE LEADERSHIP
Literature Review: Positive Leadership
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1LITERATURE REVIEW: POSITIVE LEADERSHIP
Introduction
In the contemporary global organizational scenario, with increasing integration,
inclusiveness as well as inter-connectedness of the business domains across the globe,
attributing to international phenomena like Globalization, trade liberalisation and
technological innovations, the operational frameworks of the organizations, especially
commercial organizations have developed significantly (Brunetto, Xerri and Nelson 2013).
With the global business scenarios becoming more competitive and dynamic, it has become
immensely crucial for the organizations to incorporate efficiency and increased productivity
as well as higher employee performance so as to stay profitable, prospective and sustainable
in the long run. In this context, factors like authentic leadership, development of employees;
psychological capital and aspects like that of Leader-Member Exchange have been gaining
increasing popularity and importance in the aspects of enhancement of employment
performance and overall organizational development (Muenjoh and McMurray 2016). The
essay, in this context, tries to conduct and extensive review of the existing literatures, present
in these domains, so as to observed the relationships between the aspects of authentic
leadership, leader-member exchange as well as the psychological capital of the employees,
thereby discussion the perceptions and theories present in the aspects of development of
psychological capital for different types of employees. The essay also tries to analyse and
critically review the reasons behind the influences of emotions on the performances of the
employees, as found to be present in different literary and scholarly evidences.
Authentic Leadership
Over the years, with the development of commercial organizational scenario and with
the increasing competitiveness, dynamics and complexities in the domains of operational
framework of the organizations, considerable changes can also be seen to be occurring in the

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aspects of the leadership structures within these organizations, in the global framework. In
this context, Odumeru and Ogbonna (2013), in their research paper, highlights the two broad
types of leadership frameworks currently observable in contemporary organizational
scenario, to be those of transactional and transformational leadership. The authors
differentiate between these two types of leadership patterns in the sense that while
transactional leadership does not intend to change the future and is more focussed to keep the
organizational patterns and activities the same, the transformational leaders are more
interested in stimulating, inspiring and thereby transforming the activities with positive
approaches for achieving extraordinary outcomes.
The above assertions are augmented by McCleskey (2014), who highlight that
transformational leadership is a more proactive form of leadership, where higher ideals and
moral values are instilled among the employees, thereby motivating them and stimulating
their creative and innovative traits, which bring previously non-derived results for the
concerned results. However, neither of the two above mentioned scholarly works discuss
about the sub-categories of leadership styles or traits which exist under the two broad
domains of leaderships and the variations among these sub-groups.
In this context, Wong and Laschinger (2013), highlights one of the leadership styles,
in the contemporary period, with resemblance to the structure and objectives of
transformational leadership, as that of the concept of “Authentic Leadership”. According to
the authors, several common attributes of transformational leadership as well as servant
leadership can also be found in authentic leadership styles, the attributes being positive
morals, self-awareness of the leaders in terms of cognitions, emotions and values as well as
positive modelling on parts of the leaders (Laschinger, Wong and Grau 2012). Although the
research paper of Wong and Laschinger (2013), discusses the resemblance of authentic
leadership structure with that of transformational and servant leaderships, the paper lacks in

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the aspect of providing a comprehensive and appropriate definition of the notion of
“Authentic Leadership”.
Černe, Jaklič and Škerlavaj (2013), define authentic leadership as a new kind of
leadership where the primary emphasis is on the legitimacy of the leaders and on the
construction of honest relationships with their followers, thereby ensuring the presence of
ethical components in the operational frameworks of the organizations as a whole.
Nichols and Erakovich (2013), discusses the Authentic Leadership Model developed
by Bill George, in which the five characteristics of an authentic leader are cited with the help
of an action wheel which is as follows:
Figure 1: Authentic Action Wheel
(Source: Powlus 2018)
As per this model, the attributes of the authentic leaders are:

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Sense of Purpose- Regarding their own and organization goals, which is manifested in the
form of passion for their works
Values- Regarding what they are and what they aim to do and the authentic leaders do not
tend to compromise on their values which can be seen from their behaviour which is
generally in accordance to their values
Robust relationships- The authentic leaders have strong and productive relationships with
others, as is generally evident from the connectedness of the same with the followers,
characterised by free communications, mutual respects and incorporation of bilateral thoughts
and ideas (Leroy et al. 2015)
Self-discipline- Seen in the focus and levels of determination of the leaders and presence of
enough motivation and consistency to deal with hurdles and keep on moving towards their
goals
Heart- Generally manifested in their levels of compassion, which shows higher sensitivity
among authentic leaders, regarding the needs of others and willingness to assist them
(Hmieleski, Cole and Baron 2012)
All these aspects, as pointed out by the above-mentioned scholarly works indicates
towards the increasing needs for this kind of leadership and its rising relevance in the
contemporary period and organizational structure.
Leader-Member Exchange Theory
In the context of discussing the relationships between the leaders and other
participants of the organizations, in the contemporary global business framework, Rockstuhl
et al. (2012), highlight the aspects of Leader-Member Exchange Theory, according to the
assertions of which, in an organization, the same leaders can have different types of

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relationships with different sub-ordinates in the same organization. However, the authors do
not clearly indicate the differences which may be present in this aspect, which in turn, can be
discussed in the work of Volmer, Spurk and Niessen (2012), where the two broad
differentiations of the members, from the perspectives of the leaders are as follows:
In-group- Members are more favoured and communicate more freely with the leader,
commands higher attention and have more access to the different resources of the
organization
Out-group- Not that much favoured by the leader and play less significant roles in the
organizational process
Vidyarthi et al. (2014), in this aspect, augments this argument by asserting that the
two-way relationship between the followers and leaders is built based on the following
operational activities:
Role taking- In this stage, with the joining of a new member, their talents and abilities are
assessed by the leaders and they are accordingly provided opportunities to prove themselves.
Role making- This refers to the stage of informal negotiations between the leaders and the
members in the working environment, where those members having similarity in thought
process and working traits with that of the leaders generally succeed more than the others.
These aspects are expected to contribute to the employee and organizational
performances considerably. Another factor, in this context, contributing to the employee
performances in the global organizational framework, is that of the psychological capital of
the employees.
Psychological Capital

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Newman et al. (2014), in the context of international organizational framework,
defines the increasingly popular notion of psychological capital as the psychological
developmental state of the individuals in an organization which evolves the overall
personality and efficiency level of the concerned individual. The author characterizes the
presence of psychological capital of individuals (especially in the organizational
environment) to be as follows:
Hope- Having optimistic approach and energy of perseverance and working towards the goals
and objectives proactively
Efficacy- Believing in his or herself in the aspects of efficiently working towards
achievement of goals and generating positive and beneficial outcomes
Resilience- Keeping a positive attitude in the times of negative situations and coping up with
the same by designing positive solutions
Optimism- Keeping a positive outlook throughout, towards individual success, at present in
the future (Roche, Haar and Luthans 2014)
Relationship between authentic leadership, psychological capital and leader-member
exchange
The above discussed aspects, as perceived by scholars across the world, have
significant inter-relationships and multilateral connections, although the nature of these
relationships can be seen to be varying according to the variations in the perceptions of the
scholars and their assertions.
Authentic relationship and psychological capital
As per the argument put forward by Erkutlu and Chafra (2013), authentic leadership
in an organization in general, having the traits of all forms of positive leadership structures,

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have considerable similarity with that of the traits which are generally found in positive
psychological capital of people. As per the authors, authentic leadership in general is
characterized by four primary components- self-awareness, moral perspectives, transparency
in relational aspects and balance in the processing activities, which, according to the authors,
can only develop in the presence of positive psychological capital among the relevant
individuals (Avey 2014).
Psychological capital as a meditator
Wang et al. (2014), in their work, highlights a unique connection between the aspects
of authentic leadership and workers’ performance and the role of psychological capital played
in this domain, which cannot be seen to be commonly investigated in the literary works or
scholarly evidences prior to the same. As per the assertions of the author, the presence of
authentic leadership in the organizations help in improving employee performances as the
highly ethical and moral behaviour of the leaders are viewed by the followers as inspirations
and the same are instilled in the followers by the means of increased transparency, positivity
and ethical aspects. Positive and authentic leaders support their followers to enhance their
performances (Hsiung 2012).
According to Wang et al. (2014), the psychological capital, in this context, plays a
mediating role between the relationship of authentic leadership and performance of the
followers or the workers. The authors refer to the complementary congruity theory, according
to which, the performances of followers are highly influenced by the leaders when there
exists a complementarity between the capabilities of the leaders and needs of the followers
(Zhang, Wang and Shi 2012).
In this context, the authentic leadership plays crucial role in enhancing the
performance of the workers if the same are in need for psychological capital development.

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On the contrary, when there is presence of high psychological capital among the workers or
followers, the role and significance of authentic leadership decreases as the leaders do not
have much to influence. However, the assertions of the authors are considerably generic and
deviations can be seen in many cases, where both psychological capital and authentic
leadership can be seen to be cumulatively and positively affecting the performance of the
followers (Owens, Wallace and Waldman 2015).
LMX as a mediator
The work of Zhang, Wang and Shi (2012) indicates towards the mediating role of
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) between the relationship of the authentic leadership and
productivity and performance of the followers. As per the assertions of the workers, the
presence of authentic leadership in an organization leads to a superior quality of
communication framework between the leaders and the followers, due to the facilitation of
transparency and free flow of ideas, updates and grievances (Zhang et al.2012). This in turn
helps in construction of a superior quality LMX, which in turn has positive implications on
the performances of the followers, who in presence of a favourable relation with the leaders,
feel motivated, positive and encouraged to put in more efforts.
PsyCap as moderator between LMX and follower’s performance
According to Chaurasia and Shukla (2014), the relationship between the LMX and
that of the performance of the followers is facilitated by the aspects of psychological capital
in the sense that in the presence of low PsyCap, the strong LMX facilitates in greater
motivation and dedication among the workers by enhancing their positive attitude and
improving their performance of the employees.

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Figure 2: Relation between the Authentic leadership, LMX and psychological capital
(Source: Youssef and Luthans 2012)
Developing Psychological Capital in organizations
There has been considerable research in the aspects of development of psychological
capital in the contemporary global organizations, with the processes being varying across
different employees and the types of jobs which they do. In this context, Verleysen,
Lambrechts and Van Acker (2015), elaborates about the Appreciative Inquiry Structure for
the purpose of implementation of Psychological Capital among the workers in global
organizational frameworks.
Figure 3: Appreciative Framework
(Source: Fccsingapore.com 2018)

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According to the authors, participating in these types of Appreciative Inquiries, which
encourage in defining the purpose, discover the workings, dreaming of something new,
designing to make it happen and delivering the same, helps the workers to fulfil their Basic
Psychological Needs for the aspects like that of autonomy, relatedness and competence,
which in turn helps in increasing their psychological capitals. However, this type of model is
applicable more for white collared jobs, as per the authors and is thus not a generic model for
building psychological capital.
Huang and Luthans (2015), in this aspect, provides several general guidelines for
improving he PsyCap of employees in general, the steps being those of clarifying ones’ goals,
brainstorming for ways of accomplishments of the goals, incorporate others’ ideas and
initiate communications and finally executing the steps in accordance to the plans and self-
perceived goals.
Emotions at work: Implications on employees’ performances
There have been significant works in studying the presence of emotions in the
workplaces and their implications on the behaviours and attitudes of the employee as well as
on their overall performances. In this context, the Ashkanasy and Dorris (2017), uses the
Affective Events Theory, thereby analysing the six major emotions (both positive and
negative), which are usually prevalent among the individuals in their workplaces, which are
triggered by the different events and occurrences in the work places:

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Figure 4: Positive and Negative emotions in workplaces
(Source: Open.lib.umn.edu 2018)
As per the authors, these emotions, in their turn have implications on the
performances of the employees. According to the authors, positive emotions on part of both
the leaders as well as employees, increases the level of positivity and motivation in the
organizations as a whole, which in turn, encourages the performances of the employees, who
try to put in more efforts. According to Ayoko, Konrad and Boyle (2012), emotions (both
positive and negative) have direct implications in the aspects of the feelings of the employees
regarding their closeness with that of the organizations and their leaders as well as
supervisors, thereby impacting their performances in the organizations.
Conclusion
The above review of the existing literary and scholarly evidences, makes it evident
that in the contemporary period, the aspects of authentic leadership, psychological leadership

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and LMX are gaining increasing importance in the global commercial and organizational
frameworks and these phenomena are found to be inter-related with each other. As can be
seen both LMX as well as psychological capital play roles of mediators between authentic
leadership and performances of the employees. In this context, different theories can also be
seen to be discussed by the scholars, regarding the development of psychological capital of
the workers, of which one of the primary one is that of the appreciative inquiry. From the
discussion, it can also be seen that emotions (both positive and negative) play considerably
significant roles in workplaces and have considerable implications on the performances of the
workers.

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