How Employee Authenticity Shapes Work Attitudes and Behaviors: the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and the Moder
- PDF / 573,965 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 78 Downloads / 254 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
How Employee Authenticity Shapes Work Attitudes and Behaviors: the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and the Moderating Role of Leader Authenticity Lili Song 1,2 & Yong Wang 1,2
&
Yukun Zhao 3
Accepted: 4 November 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Taking a resource perspective, we examined the relationships between employee authenticity and work attitudes/behaviors, focusing especially on the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of leader authenticity. Data were collected with a three-wave survey administered to a sample of 588 employees from a biological manufacturing company in eastern China. Our results showed that employee authenticity can promote positive work attitudes/behaviors and inhibit negative ones among employees. The underlying mechanism is that employee authenticity can be converted into psychological capital, which is a positive psychological resource, and can further shape employee work attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, leader authenticity, as a job resource in the work environment, strengthens this conversion. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Keywords Employee authenticity . Leader authenticity . Psychological capital . Work attitudes and behaviors
Introduction Throughout the ages, people have been striving to pursue their true selves. As early as in ancient Greece, the admonition “know yourself” was engraved in the Temple of Apollo. Many prominent philosophers in history, such as Plato and Aristotle, have thought deeply about knowledge of the true self. In the field of psychology, the importance of authenticity in individual health has attracted widespread attention from researchers. For example, Horney (1951) argued that
* Yong Wang [email protected] Lili Song [email protected] Yukun Zhao [email protected] 1
CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
2
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3
Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100875, China
authenticity is a central power within individuals and that various pressures lead to individuals’ alienation from their true selves, which is the main reason for neurosis. In the twentyfirst century, authenticity has become one of the key concepts in positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 12) and is defined as “owning one’s personal experiences, be they thoughts, emotions, needs, wants, preferences, or beliefs” and “expressing oneself in ways that are consistent with inner thoughts and feelings” (Harter, 2002, p. 382). At the same time, an emerging body of empirical studies shows that authenticity can promote individuals’ well-being, self-esteem, autonomy, and meaningfulness in life (e.g., Boyraz & Kuhl, 2015; Boyraz, Waits, & Felix, 2014; Kifer, Heller, Perunovic, & Galinsky, 2013; Thomaes, Sedikides, van den Bos, Hutteman, & Reijntj
Data Loading...
