Linking authentic leadership to positive employee health, behavioral engagement, and job performance

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the emerging field of positive organizational behavior. The field of Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) has its roots in the concept of positive psychology (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008) but is more narrowly defined as the study and application of positively oriented human resources strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today\u27s workplace (Luthans, 2002, p.698). More and more researchers have begun to emphasize what is right with people rather than focusing on what is wrong with people. Given this opportunity, this dissertation explicitly focuses upon the power of positive psychological states and behaviors, such as psychological safety, job engagement, positive employee health, and proactive behaviors, which may have strong influence on employees\u27 behavior in the organization. A new emerging leadership style, authentic leadership, was employed as an important antecedent to see how leadership can promote these positive states and behaviors. Based on Ryff\u27s (1995) positive human health concepts, this dissertation developed a positive employee health construct which focuses on organizational context and environments. A four dimensional measure was developed for this construct, including leading a purposeful worklife, quality connection to others, positive self-regard and mastery, and perception of negative events. An initial nomological network was tested for the construct validity. In addition to developing a valid measure for positive employee health, another objective of this dissertation is to examine incremental predictive validity of authentic leadership and the relationship between authentic leadership and several previously unexamined outcomes (i.e., positive employee health, job engagement, proactivity, job performance, and workplace deviance behavior). Many scholars believe that the influence of authentic leadership has an important role in modern organization and society because it helps to restore basic confidence, hope, optimism, resiliency, and meaningfulness. This dissertation adopted a positive organizational behavior approach to furthering our understanding of the process by which authentic leadership influences several important positive outcomes. Findings of this dissertation indicated that newly developed positive employee health construct is useful in predicting job satisfaction and life satisfaction. It is significantly related to but also distinguished from other similar construct, such as psychological well-being and vigor. In addition, this dissertation also found that authentic leadership can be used to predict employees\u27 psychological safety, job engagement, positive employee health, knowledge sharing, and workplace deviance behavior. Indirect relationships between authentic leadership and job performance and proactivity through the mediation effect of job engagement were partially supported. Although authentic leadership can be distinguished from transformational leadership, it only showed incremental predict validity over transformational leadership with job engagement as outcome. Results of this study also suggest that need for leadership and perception of organizational politics may work as direct outcomes of authentic leadership rather than moderators as proposed

Developing and Leveraging Proactive Personality to Bridge the Soft Skills Gap

There is a gap in the current labor market of protean workers who possess the uniquely human soft skills required by the increased reliance on artificial intelligence and digitization brought by the fourth industrial revolution. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to use the agentic perspective of Bandura’s social cognitive theory to understand how existing employees’ proactive personality is seen and experienced in the workplace. Using the human capital view on existing talent, this study explored how the soft skill of proactive personality can be developed in existing employees for the self-identification of opportunities for upskilling or reskilling when faced with skills obsolescence or shifting skill requirements. Six managers and four individual contributors at U.S. organizations participated in semistructured interviews to describe their lived experiences of responding to shifting skill requirements. Findings from coded analysis using Belwalkar and Tobacyk’s tripartite model taxonomy of proactive personality indicated that existing talent can be developed by leaders to provide positive social change that empowers individuals to become and remain relevant and employable throughout their careers. Findings revealed that by developing existing employees to become more proactive, organizations can create sustainable mindset shifts, habits, and behaviors that can mitigate the soft skills gap. Findings could be used to decrease unemployment, poverty, and inequality of income, and could increase societal dignity by keeping people employed and organizations competitive and profitable

Leadership

Leadership is viewed as a phenomenon allowing advantages for organizations and their success. Although much research has been done on the concept of leadership, many studies do not include the different styles, perspectives, and contexts of leadership. As such, this book aims to fill this gap by combining several studies on leadership from different perspectives. The various chapters address such topics as millennial leaders, Theory X style leadership, leadership in the turbulent environment, emotional intelligence, and much more. This volume shows how new insights about leadership can stimulate organizational development in various countries and regions worldwide

From Neuroscience to New Horizons and Innovative, Inclusive Research Agendas

This e-book extends the understanding of compassion from its epistemological positioning in neuroscience to wider fields and applications in: (i) health psychology; (ii) pedagogical practice in higher education; and (iii) organizations and leadership. It introduces innovative approaches from scholars working in diverse research contexts that include South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Slovenia, and highlights new horizons for organizational neuroscience research

Towards a sustainable model of innovative work behaviours' enhancement : the mediating role of employability

In this mixed methods study, a moderated mediation model predicting effects of leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) on innovative work behaviors, with employability as a mediator, has been tested. Multi-source data from 487 pairs of employees and supervisors working in 151 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) supported our hypothesized model. The results of structural equation modelling provide support for our model. In particular, the benefits of close relationships and high-quality exchanges between employee and supervisor (LMX), and fostering individual development as a result of employees' OCB have an indirect effect on innovative work behaviors through positive effects on workers' employability. Innovative work behaviors depend on employees' knowledge, skills, and expertise. In other words, enhancing workers' employability nurtures innovative work behaviors. In addition, we found a moderation effect of organizational politics on the relationship between employability and innovative work behaviors. Secondly, qualitative methods focusing on experiences of the antecedents and outcomes of employability were used to complement our quantitative results. All in all, this study has important consequences for managerial strategies and practices in SMEs and call for an awareness of the dysfunctional effect of perceived organizational politics

Consumer Perceptions and Coping Strategies of Consumers Committed to Eating Local in Michigan (USA)

American consumers are presented with an increasing number of reasons to buy and eat local food products. One refers to the importance of the origin of the products they purchase. A second, and closely related reason, refers to being concerned about the food miles, or the distance foods have traveled from where they are grown or raised, to where they are purchased or consumed. If the act of "eating local" is often presented as beneficial and virtuous (for example, health, environment, community development and civic responsibility), it also embodies obstacles such as the time and sometimes skills required for both shopping and preparation. Such obstacles often discourage many from buying local fresh produce. This paper draws on the results of several focus groups with consumers in Michigan who are committed to eating local. The paper offers insights into how these consumers cope or balance their commitment to eating local with the constraints they face on buying and preparing local food. ...French Abstract : Les consommateurs des Etats-Unis sont de plus en plus incités à acheter et consommer des produits locaux. L'une des raisons est l'importance de l'origine des produits que l'on achète. Une autre raison est celle de la préoccupation par rapport aux " food miles " c'est à dire la distance parcourue par les produits entre la production et l'achat. Si le fait de consommer local est souvent présenté comme vertueux (pour la santé, l'environnement, le développement local ou la responsabilité sociale), il présente des obstacles tels que le temps passé et les compétences nécessaires pour les achats et la préparation. De tels obstacles peuvent décourager l'achat des produits locaux. Cet article présente les résultats de plusieurs focus groups avec des consommateurs du Michigan impliqués dans l'achat de produits locaux. Il permet de comprendre quelles sont les stratégies de coping utilisées par les consommateurs pour concilier leur engagement et les contraintes auxquelles ils doivent faire face lors de l'achat ou de la préparation des produits.LOCAL FOOD; CONSUMPTION; COPING STRATEGIES; CONSOMMATION; PRODUITS LOCAUX; STRATEGIES DE COPING

The promise and perils of asynchronous learning: how faculty, students, and administrators can collaboratively increase retention and satisfaction in the online classroom

This paper explores some of the major challenges faced by faculty, students, administrators, and support staff in retaining online students, and doing so while earning high marks for the quality of each course. A number of strategies are explored beginning with the need to carefully consider effective mixes of technology, structure, and content in the classroom environment. With an emphasis on social presence and careful consideration of how students use technology to access the class learning management system (LMS), the paper offers a variety of options to build classroom spaces that foster a sense of community and collaboration. Thereafter the paper addresses best practices to turn well‐ considered design elements into a classroom experience which addresses issues related to retention, achieving learning outcomes, and ensuring students and faculty invest in the learning process from day one. By addressing concerns shared by the major actors in the field of online education, realistic best practices can be identified to help ensure online learning achieves, if not exceeds, retention and satisfaction levels seen from brick‐and‐mortar classrooms