Conference PaperPDF Available

POSITIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES ENHANCES FLOURISHING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION IN INDIA

June 2023

Conference: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.
At: Bangalore

Authors:

Purpose: Organisational leaders are focusing on employee flourishing by incorporating dimensions of happiness, feeling good and thereby functioning well. The study examines the influence of positive leadership on employee flourishing, among software professionals in Information technology organisations in India and the mediating effect of psychological empowerment and trust, within the ambit of positive leadership as available. Methodology: Exploratory Sequential mixed method designs was adopted using four valid and reliable scales with a 983 respondents. Stratified and judgemental sampling techniques were used to identify respondents and the ITO's. Convergent approach was used to compare findings from qualitative and quantitative data. Structural equation model and AMOS were used to check the model fitness and structural relationship. Findings: The results indicate that software professionals do experience positive leadership and trust, and thereby feel psychologically empowered leading to flourishing. The qualitative findings support the statistical analysis. The correlation between the constructs is significant and exhibits noteworthy associations with the research model. This study highlights the association of immediate supervisors and employees, wherein the former acts as an intrinsic motivator in affecting organizational and individual-level positive behavioural outcomes. Implications: The study indicates that both leadership and flourishing are intertwined. Significantly adding value to the subject on the study constructs by contributing towards positive psychology and broaden-and-build theories. Organisations must look at interventions programs designed to enhance positive leadership, empowerment, trust and flourishing among software professionals in ITO's. Positive leadership practices are operationalised within a goal-setting framework towards enhancing employee flourishing. Originality/value: This novel paper has the potential to stimulate the empirical studies on dependent variables through relationship of positive leadership.

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Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

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POSITIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES ENHANCES FLOURISHING IN

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION IN INDIA

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Organisational leaders are focusing on employee flourishing by incorporating

dimensions of happiness, feeling good and thereby functioning well. The study examines the

influence of positive leadership on employee flourishing, among software professionals in

Information technology organisations in India and the mediating effect of psychological

empowerment and trust, within the ambit of positive leadership as available.

Methodology: Exploratory Sequential mixed method designs was adopted using four valid and

reliable scales with a 983 respondents. Stratified and judgemental sampling techniques were used

to identify respondents and the ITO’s. Convergent approach was used to compare findings from

qualitative and quantitative data. Structural equation model and AMOS were used to check the

model fitness and structural relationship.

Findings: The results indicate that software professionals do experience positive leadership and

trust, and thereby feel psychologically empowered leading to flourishing. The qualitative

findings support the statistical analysis. The correlation between the constructs is significant and

exhibits noteworthy associations with the research model. This study highlights the association

of immediate supervisors and employees, wherein the former acts as an intrinsic motivator in

affecting organizational and individual-level positive behavioural outcomes.

Implications: The study indicates that both leadership and flourishing are intertwined.

Significantly adding value to the subject on the study constructs by contributing towards positive

psychology and broaden-and-build theories. Organisations must look at interventions programs

designed to enhance positive leadership, empowerment, trust and flourishing among software

professionals in ITO’s. Positive leadership practices are operationalised within a goal-setting

framework towards enhancing employee flourishing.

Originality/value: This novel paper has the potential to stimulate the empirical studies on

dependent variables through relationship of positive leadership.

Keywords: Positive Leadership; Positive Psychology; Leadership Behaviour; Psychological

Empowerment; Trust; Flourishing;

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

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INTRODUCTION

A positive and entrepreneurial strategic approach is always advantageous to organisations that

operate in hostile business environments. In turbulent times, organisations need leaders who can

build trustworthy workplace and empowering employees through positive psychology. Global

economies are expanding rapidly today and in the process, looking at young talents for future

leadership roles. However, the challenge lies in focusing on long-term goals, specifically the

human capital, vis a vis employee growth and development through positive leadership. A

leader’s positivity can be contagious if engaged consistently. However, employees' prejudice due

to their opinions or experiences of their leader’s affirmative behaviour can overshadow positive

behaviours of the leader. So trust in the workplace and psychological empowerment can offset

this state of affairs and allow employees to fully benefit from positivity. As existing notions of

leadership theories barely provide justification for positivity of a leader (Norman, and Luthans,

2008: Blanch et al., 2016).However, trust and empowerment in the presence of positive

leadership behaviours can provide sparse evidence too. Although theories of leadership have

examined the leader’s positive aspects in terms of behaviour or style, the effects of positive

leadership have not been explored (Avolio and Luthans, 2006).Based on our understanding, the

basic difference between leadership theories that are in vogue today is that a servant leader

focuses on the followers' needs, while a transformational leader emphasises upon larger

organizational goals. Authentic leaders emphasise on honest relationships with followers, built

on ethical foundation; while ethical leaders focus on the importance of ethical standards, beliefs

and values. Finally, empowering leaders focus on enhancing employees by sharing power. The

salient points of leadership theories (mentioned above)do highlight the importance of positivity;

however, none has actually gone on to define positive leadership

(

Youssef-Morgan, and

Luthans,2013) universally. The prevailing approach that has been in vogue do confirm that

positive leadership effectively builds upon these leadership theories by applying positive

psychology practices (Seligman, 1998), represented through positive organisational scholarship

(Cameroon, Dutton and Quinn, 2003) and positive change (Cooperrider and Srivastva,

1987).Further, these theories essentially assert that positive leaders need to remain both

methodical and cohesive over time and across circumstances, while focusing on the heliotropic

effect and positive deviance (Cameron, 2012). As a theory in management science, the concept

of positive leadership may be new; nevertheless, its philosophies have been practiced since long,

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based on heliotropic effect, positivity, spirit of entrepreneurship, and positive deviance, creating

thereby an environment of trust among leaders and employees through virtuous behaviour and

affirmative action’s. It’s important to demonstrate positive leadership behaviour towards

achieving ones potential through positivity, empowerment and resilience do influence employee

flourishing at the workplace (Jordan, 2016: Youssef-Morgan and Luthans, 2013:Cameron, 2012:

Seligman, 2011). The study defines that “positive leadership lines up closely with business

strategy to drive higher level of performance by promoting optimism and focusing on

employee’s strengths, positive perspective and recognition.”

Positive psychology (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), positive organizational behaviour

(Luthans, 2002) and positive organisational scholarship (Cameroon, Dutton and Quinn, 2003)

have had significant effects for appreciating individual welfare; however, not much has been

discussed on employee flourishing (Kelloway et al., 2013).A leader’s positivity is contagious and

influences follower’s voluntary behaviours in goal achievement. It confirms the exercise of

psychological capital by the leader attesting to the premise that these behaviours are fundamental

to positive leadership.

A leader’s optimistic sentiments are often related with their physical ability, well-being and

features like hopefulness and spirit (Algoe and Fredrickson, 2011).Extant research has confirmed

that the behaviour of an immediate supervisor does have an inordinate influence on employee

psychological welfare (Gilbreath and Benson, 2004). However, it may be worth pondering upon

whether only an optimistic approach of a leader influences employee flourishing. Research

indicates that leaders’ empowering behaviour does motivate employees to foster innovative

behaviour, and thereby better individual performance, in turn, enhancing organisational

performance (Meng and Sun, 2019). Additionally, we have also noted that ‘trust’ effectively is

the spirit of leadership, and it's impossible to flourish without having trusting relationship with

leaders (Crnokrak, 2017). Thus, trust, empowerment, impartiality and institutional uprightness

are interrelated, and are significant factors constructing positive leadership (Zbierowski, 2016).

Herein, it may be noted that although some of the constructs (i.e. trust, spirit of leadership etc.)

have been well-defined in extant literature, there is little empirical evidence that effectively

correlates positive leadership vis a vis its influence on trust, psychological empowerment and

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employee flourishing at the workplace, especially within the context of Asian countries, and

particularly in India.

The information technology sector in India is growing rapidly and requires leaders to manage

human resources effectively in a cross cultural environment. This enables them to look at

positivity and building trust to enhance engagement at workplace. Historically speaking,

information technology sector has been challenged by leadership crises across levels, and

organisations are constantly looking at lateral hires to fill-in these positions. In fact, ITOs

generally look at developing leadership practices by investing on their employees to develop

their competencies in order to manage people and businesses better. Therefore, software

professionals often have a tough time, since they have to deal with both technology and people.

While on the one hand, they have to support their team members in their development and

manage clients, on the other, they have to manage the ‘technicalities’ programming of projects

towards achieving the expected results, often with multiple operational constraints. To

understand these factors, trust in the workplace and psychological empowerment are being used

as mediating variables, as they are crucial to understand and appreciate leadership behaviour.

The objective of this study is to examine software professionals’ experience of positive

leadership (PL), psychological empowerment (PE), trust and flourishing (FL) in the backdrop of

information technology organisations (TOs) in India. Additionally, we also investigate both the

indirect and direct mediating effect of trust and PE via both PL and FL.

DEVELOPMENT OF THEORY AND HYPOTHESES

This study adopted the positive leadership model’s framework

(Blanch

et al., 2016) to understand

the influence of certain positive employee behavioural outcomes. Notably, both positive

leadership and employee flourishing have been built on the broaden-and-build theory proposed

by Fredrickson’s (1998) based on positive psychology. Additionally, we also adopted Putnam’s

(1995) seminal work on trust to explore the individual’s association and self-confidence to

manage social conditions,which effectively fosters trust at the workplace. We also referred to

Spreitzer’s (1995) work on psychological empowerment to understand an individual’s

experience of the dimensions of competence, impact, self-direction and meaning at workplace.

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POSITIVE LEADERSHIP

In today’s high-performing information technology organizations, it is imperative for leaders to

build trust in the workplace by acknowledging and valuing employees’ loyalty and treating them

fairly with respect. This empowers employees, while developing their strengths. The literature

indicates that in order to drive employees’ performance and their development into future

leaders, while creating value for the organisation, a leader’s positivity and emotional intelligence

(EI) are key components. Notably, the theoretical context of positive leadership has evolved over

time to include affirmative behaviours, ranging from transformational, ethical, authentic,

spiritual and servant leadership. Effectively the underlying belief across these leadership styles

focuses on both enabling and maintaining high standards of employees’ performance, by

engaging in shared constructive interactions between a leader and followers. Literature on

positive leadership has gained momentum, especially owing to the ‘positive psychology

movement ‘that evolved through positive forms of leadership theories, focusing on strengths,

positive perspective and recognition. However, empirical understanding, the developmental

process at large, along with the implementation of positive leadership and its sub-dimensional

behaviour seem to be ‘under-researched’, especially in the Asian context, and specifically in

India (Sunil and Patrick, 2019: 2018).

Positive leadership begins with the process of spreading positivity in an organisation, while

nurturing it over time as an integral part of organizational culture, in order to develop an

optimistic human capital. As noted earlier, a leader’s positivity forecasts and contributes towards

employee empowerment, effectively as a consequence of transformational leadership. Through

employee empowerment, transformational leaders inspire their followers by managing their

strengths towards their objectives and motivation (Bass, 1999). These leaders inspire their

followers by supervising them as persons (Bass, 1999) and this thought has been suggested by

Luthans (2002) and Arakawa and Greenberg’s (2007), whereby they stated that effective

leadership in essence is all about developing strengths and enhancing employee value, while

acknowledging their contribution towards both individual as well as organisational well-being.

Authentic leadership on the other hand, is drawn on positive organisational behaviour, which

develops employees’ strengths and psychological capacities towards positive outcomes at the

workplace (Gardner et al., 2005: Luthans, 2002)providing them a perspective on “what goes

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right with them, what gives them life, what is experienced as good, what is inspiring and

extraordinary” (Cameron, 2008).Earlier, Arakawa and Greenberg’s (2007) had stated that a

positive perspective helps in interpreting problems by providing solutions, which in turn,

supports the findings on ‘resiliency’. Empowering leaders ensure that they give a free-hand to

employees in decision-making. Herein, it may be noted that Cameron (2012) for instance, has

enormously contributed to the study of positive leadership, vis a vis its influence, in the context

of developed economies. The authors have even suggested that leaders who choose to adopt

positive mannerisms create an optimistic work culture through trust in the workplace and

employee wellbeing. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical work, establishing the

relationship between positive leadership (directly or indirectly or otherwise) on employees

‘psychological and social well-being (Andony et al., 2016: Kelloway et al., 2013) and flourishing

(Seligman, 2011)

FLOURISHING

Seligman’s (2011) PERMA Theory advocated:“positive emotion; engagement, relationships,

meaning and purpose, and accomplishment are essential for individual’s well-being and

flourishing”. Further, the author also adopted the definition of Keyes’ (2002) seminal work on

flourishing, whereby he stated: individuals “having high levels of both hedonic and eudaimonic

well-being” is supported by positive psychology. Flourishing has been a fundamental concept in

positive psychology that is a blend of emotional, psychological, and social well-being. When

individuals begin to develop and prosper both personally and professionally, it reflects

flourishing, supporting the theory of subjective well-being. Flourishing inspires Positive

Organizational Scholarship (POS), leading to positive outcomes at the workplace, leading to both

individual and organisational profitability and well-being (Adams et al., 2019: Cameron and

Spreitzer, 2012). Work-related identities (Dutton et. al., 2010) also promote flourishing. Dutton,

et. al., (2010) stated: "Positive institution (pro-social practices) develops optimistic individuals

through the facilitation of positive identity construct) leading to an experience of positivity, i.e.

employee flourishing.“The factors mentioned herein help individuals to experience positive

emotions, such as increased self-confidence, a determination to succeed, and accountability

towards meaningful job. This quite fits the ‘requirement’ of employees working in ITOs, as they

need software professionals who are self-motivated and are committed towards their work

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objectives. Therefore ,ITO’s leaders need to develop a work environment that fosters flourishing,

which consequently leaves a positive impression on the employees’ work experiences. Past

evidence indicates that individuals with high levels of ‘hedonic and eudaimonic well-being

experience, tend to engage in optimistic behaviour, leading to flourishing thereof (Seligman,

2011). However, by and large, extant literature does indicate a mixed relationship between

positive leadership and flourishing, especially among software professionals in India; thus this

study posits the first hypothesis:H1: Positive leaders do influence flourishing.

TRUST

We adopted Putnam’s (1993and 1995) and (Yamagishi and Yamagishi, 1994) works in order to

form a theoretical base, and thereby explore an individual’s relationship and confidence to

handle social situations, fostering social trust and/or trust. We have noted earlier that the

outcome of trust, does lead to employee increased collaboration, problem-solving ability and

transparent communication, which in turn, goes on to facilitate healthy and positive relations at

the workplace, while enhancing well-being both at an individual and an organisational level and

consequently raising organisational profits (Patrick and Sunil, 2019a: Ferres and Travaglione

2003). Trust has often been defined as a circumstance, which emotionally warrants confidence in

persons. The level of trust that an employee displays is possibly the logical outcome of effective

leadership, stemming from appropriate organisational policies and practices. Trust may also be

perceived as the leader’s attitude and his/her own perception of being trustworthy. In the context

of ITOs, when software professionals trust, they tend to emulate their leader's confidence by

exhibiting positive attitude, acting as a performance driver, enhancing better performance (Rubel

et al., 2018). Importantly, although trust is not ‘perceptible’ and tangible like remuneration and

perks, it is indeed a key component in encouraging organisational welfare and efficiency, thereby

bringing about a decline in costs. Existing literature stated that trust positively influences a

leader’s behavioural outcomes; although there is not much empirical evidence approving this

relationship (Andony et al., 2016, Cui et al., 2015). This study examines trust vis a vis employee

flourishing among Indian software professionals working in ITOs. Based on this and the

discussion that precedes, we put forth our second hypothesis:H2: Trust impacts flourishing.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT

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We adopted Spreitzer’s (1995) theoretical work on dimensions of empowerment to investigate

the software professionals ‘experiencing empowerment, vis a vis their anticipated outcomes.

Since the 1980s, there has been an increased interest among researchers in the concept of

empowerment within psychology literature. Seibert, et al., (2011) defined personal

(psychological) empowerment (PE) as "intrinsic task motivation reflecting a sense of self-control

concerning one's work and an active involvement with one's work role."Thus, PE tends to

enhance a software professional’s level of motivation, his/her ability to take decisions, enhances

the performance level as well as well-being (Jena, Bhattacharyya and Pradhan, 2019: Patrick and

Sunil, 2019).

It is also observed in the literature that PE has a significant influence on organisational culture

due to its association with contextual factors and employees’ work behaviour. This may be owed

to the effects of positive leadership theories. This occurs because, ultimately, it is the leader’s

positivity that influences PE and organisational commitment (Walumbwa and Lawler, 2003),

leading to the development of employee trust, while enhancing both individual and

organisational performance and well-being (Lee, Jang and Lee, 2018). This study aims to

understand the influence of PE on flourishing. Although few literature review indicates a strong

relationship between PE and wellbeing (Rantika and Yustina, 2017: Pradhan et al., 2017), but

there seems to a lack of empirical evidence, supporting this relationship, especially within the

context of Indian software professionals in India. This discussion thereby leads us to our third

hypothesis:H3: Psychological empowerment does influence flourishing.

There seems to be a hardly any empirical evidence to establish the relationship between positive

leadership out rightly or otherwise on employee welfare, well-being (Andony et al., 2016) and/or

with mediators such as trust or PE. Nevertheless, ealier studies have indeed highlighted the

importance of trust; yet there are gaps in terms of understanding the mediating influence of trust,

employee work on performance, immediate supervisor’s actions, PE, work engagement, and

flourishing. Similarly, PE was found to have an indirect effect on leadership theories and

employee outlook (Barroso Castro et al., 2008), job satisfaction and satisfaction with life (Nelet

al., 2015: Dewettinck and Van Ameijde, 2011). Although Biswas-Diener, (2011) and Pradhan,

et. al., (2017) suggested that there may be an indirect effect with an individual’s well-being, but

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there does not seem to be much empirical evidence with reference to flourishing. Additionally,

literature has also suggested that antecedents to trust in workplace have been relatively

unexplored (Patrick and Sunil, 2019a: Andony et al., 2016: Cui et al., 2015), especially in the

Indian context. Moreover, existing literature has revealed varied outcomes as regards the

facilitating aspect of PE and trust on theories of positive leadership (authentic, ethical, servant,

empowering, transformational). However, as mentioned earlier, there seems to be hardly any

empirical evidence supporting the constructs (i.e. leadership and flourishing) under the aegis of

positive leadership, in the context of ITOs in India. Based on these discussions, we frame the

next two hypotheses of our study:H4: Psychological Empowerment may have a mediating

effect on positive leadership and flourishing. H5: Trust may have a mediating effect on

positive leadership and flourishing.

The impetus for the examiners came from the obvious vacuum and varied outcomes in literature.

The literature provides insufficient empirical evidence integrating PL with TW, PE and FL.

Evidence co-relating PL with TW, PE, and flourishing showed mixed results. Although trust

plays a central role, its effect has not been researched (Cui et al., 2015). However, the mediating

effect of PE and TW has not been investigated on PL and flourishing. Organizational studies

continue to investigate the construct of flourishing. As it is an important employee experience

and the study attempts to explore. Developing PE and trust especially among software

professionals will lead to positive outcomes personally and professionally. Due to inadequate

empirical evidences about the mediating effect from available literature the authors proposed that

leaders through empowerment and trust may try to encourage positive emotions, interpersonal

flourishing and flourishing at the workplace (Cameron, 2010). Software professional’s self-

efficacy and positive emotions may have a significant relationship between trust and

empowerment (Biswas-Diener, 2011).Thus, flourishing is perceived as key positive

consequences of positive behaviours at the workplace, i.e. empowerment and trust. There is

some evidence that positive leadership results in increased flourishing due to factors such as

empowerment and trust (Zbierowskia and Górab 2014). When software professionals experience

positive work environment due to empowerment and trust, they may find the work meaningful

leading to the fulfilment of organisational and personal goals for software professionals to

flourish

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Conceptual Model:

Figure 1: Encapsulates the theoretical archetype that directed this examination. In this study, PL

is viewed as an occupation (job) resource that certainly impacts PE, trust and FL. From Figure 1,

we deduce that PL should positively relate to FL, and may even have an indirect effect on FL

through PE and trust. This is why we proposed

METHODOLOGY

The study adopted a exploratory sequential mixed methods design approach, resulting in both

qualitative and quantitative investigation. This approach harness rigorous quantitative evidence,

as well as to capture the nuance and context-specificity, via qualitative work. Convergent

approach was used to compare findings from qualitative and quantitative data sources. For

example, the investigator can gather qualitative data to assess the personal experiences of

patients while also gathering data from survey instruments measuring the quality of care. The

two types of data can provide validation for each other and also create a solid foundation for

drawing conclusions about the intervention. To identify the ITOs and its respondents, the study

used stratified and judgemental sampling technique. Notably, these ITOs comprised both Indian

and foreign MNCs based out of India, and the participants were selected from the premium 25

ITOs, which form a part of India's $146-billion IT, sector.

Flourishing

(FL)

Positive Leader

Behaviour (PLB)

Psychological

Empowerment(P

Trust

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The qualitative data was used to explore quantitative findings. This explanatory sequential

design typically involves two phases: (1) an initial quantitative instrument phase, followed by (2)

a qualitative data collection phase, in which the qualitative phase builds directly on the results

from the quantitative phase. In this way, the quantitative results are explained in more detail

through the qualitative data. For example, findings from instrument data about costs can be

explored further with qualitative focus groups to better understand how the personal experiences

of individuals match up to the instrument results. This kind of study illustrates the use of mixed

methods to explain qualitatively how the quantitative mechanisms might work. The qualitative

questions were collected through the interview method. Based on the grounded theory the

datareceived were coded and analysed to quantify and examine the presence, meanings and

associations of certain words, themes, and/or concepts categorising them into themes. This

provided an understanding about the cultural insights (positive leadership experiences) through

analysis of text. This provided a direction for grouping them based on the sub-themes and its

relationship for analysis. This also highlighted those aspects that software professionals

(participants) frequently talked about in depth about their experiences at workplace due to their

immediate supervisor positive behaviour.

This method effectively helped us interpret the viewpoints of software professionals about their

positive experiences of their immediate supervisor leadership behaviour in terms of strength-

based approach, providing positive perspective and recognition at workplace. The data

(subjective) was analysed with reference to grounded theory (Glaser and Straus, 2017), which

involves coding and categorising of subjective data. Followed by thematic analysis (Cho and lee,

2014). Further, the most frequented phrases (positive statements)were grouped together to

construct themes and sub-themes. To further examine the nuances of immediate supervisor’s

leadership behaviours based on 1) strength-based approach: i.e. encouragement through a)

mentoring and coaching b) training programs c) providing similar tasks as per strength.2)

Positive perspective: a) regular support and guidance b) solving problems and helping in

understanding them c) assigning technical resources as additional support. 3) Recognition: a)

regular appreciation b) monthly c) quarterly d) once a year/not regular.

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Notably, these quantitative findings supported in testing our model, the theories considered,

along with subjective experiences empirically. Our rationale was that the qualitative items would

complement the results of quantitative items, increasing thereby the credibility of the study,

whereby, we could possibly integrate the results of both the methods, and then discuss the

outcomes and draw implications. Importantly, the integration of the mixed methods did result in

higher quality of inferences (Tashakkori and Teddlie 2003).The inclusion parameters for

respondent identification was minimum of three years (3) of total work experience, out of which

minimum one and half years (1.6) in the current organisation, which in turn, must be among the

top twenty-five (25) ITOs as per National Association of Software and Services Companies

(NASSCOM) listing. Four consistent, binding and unvarying scales were espoused and

administered. This tenure (inclusion criteria) gives software professionals a better understanding

of their immediate supervisor and the organisational practices and culture and how immediate

supervisors respond to various situations during the time frame with consistency (eg: on

boarding, appraisals, project reviews & release and strength development, etc.)

Data were collected in three stages (August – Nov 2018: Dec – March2018-19 and May -

September 2019); this helped in minimising bias by including personal, social and economic

factors over fourteen (14) months, wherein five(5) items were actually reverse coded. As

mentioned earlier, the interview method was used for qualitative questions. We personally

visited the ITOs to collect data by meeting the respondents and administering the questionnaire;

however, some data were also collected through e-mails, and through online medium, using

Google.doc. The questionnaire was administered to 1800 respondents, out of which we received

983 fully completed questionnaires, yielding thereby a response rate of 54.6%.Notably, a

minimum of 30 software professionals were surveyed from each organisation.

The objective data was measured using statistical methods. Preliminary analyses were

conducted using SPSS (SPSS Inc., 2010), Sobel’s test and AMOS (Arbuckle, 2017). Both

Structural equation model (SEM) and AMOS were used to check the model fitness. All the fit

measures of the variables (CFI; GFI; NFI; RMSEA; and χ2/df) indices were in the acceptable

range (Bollen, 1989), confirming thereby the validity of the measure. Once the model fit was

established, we tested the hypotheses, using path coefficient analysis and Sobel’s test in order to

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understand the mediating effect. Notably, the hypotheses model was tested and found to be fit

with the mediation variable, reporting p value <0.05, which effectively indicates a significant

mediating effect. The single factor obtained revealed a variance of 13.42%, which was lesser

than 50% of the overall variance of the scale. This also went on to prove that there was no

common minimum bias (CMB). Further, the study construct items were loaded mutually for their

respective constructs, along with single latent factor method. The factor loading analysis

indicates a clear distinction amid the dependent and the independent inclusion, along with the

discriminant variables.

MEASURING TOOLS

Four standardised, valid and reliable structured questionnaires were adopted to collect primary

data from the software professionals of top 25Indian ITOs.

Table 1: Indicating the Cronbach Alpha reliability for each of the scales for the present sample

n=983

Instrument Author/s Year

No.

items

Cronbach

alpha

The Positive Leadership

Measure ,

Margaret H. Greenberg

and Dana Arakawa 2007 20 0.85

Psychological

Empowerment Spreitzer, Gretchen M. 1995 12 0.90

Flourishing Scale Ed Diener and Robert

Biswas-Diener 2009 08 0.90

The participants responded to the items (in Table 1) through a seven-point scale, wherein 1

represented ‘very strongly disagree’to 7 represents ‘very strongly agree’. Notably, using the

seven-point scale does offer a balance, having sufficient points of discrimination, without

keeping several response options (Nunnally, 1978). The open-ended questions were content

analysed. All the demonstrated variables were within a limitation to the un-rotated sole factor,

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adopting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in SPSS 20.0 software. The participants’

demographics are presented in frequencies and percentages. Descriptive statistics (Mean and

Standard Deviation -SD), are presented for the variables under investigation. The correlation

values that strengthen the relationships are also presented. The influence of independent

variables on the dependent variable was measured using classical linear regression analysis.

Additionally, path analysis was analysed using SEM, and Sobel’s test for testing our proposed

model. Further, to examine the indirect influence of variables, we used the method propounded

by Preacher and Hayes, (2009).We also used SPSS's bootstrapping, Sobel test (Preacher and

Hayes, 2004) and AMOS (Arbuckle, 2010) for estimating the indirect effect in the simple

mediating model. Notably, the right processes of variables (CFI; GFI; NFI; RMSEA; and χ2/df)

guidelines were within a conventional range (Bollen, 1989), confirming cogency of the process

thereof.

RESPONDENTS PROFILE

All the respondents were software professionals having minimum three (3) years of total work

experience, and a minimum of one and half (1.5) years within the current organisation. The

sample distribution consisted of 61.7% men, and (38.3%) women respondents. 60.2% among

them were graduates, while 39.8% were post-graduates.39.2% were in the age group 26-30

years, while 28.6% were in the age group of 31-40 years. Lastly, (51.4%) were married, while

the rest (i.e. 48.6%) were single.

RESULTS

Mixed methods give a voice to study participants and ensure that study findings are grounded in

participants’ experiences. The qualitative data indicated that software professionals experienced

positive leadership behaviour at workplace in terms of immediate supervisors recognising their

work, providing positive perspective and developing their strengths to support them perform and

deliver their tasks. The quantitative analysis indicated that PL, PE, trust and FL are all

approximately normally distributed as per skewness and kurtosis values. Thus, it may be

affirmed that software professionals working in ITOs in India do experience PL, PE, trustand

flourishing. Importantly, significant correlations exist between these constructs; for instance,

both PE and trust mediate the relationship between PL and FL. The overall intensity of the

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

Unpublished work

relationship among the dimensions of PL, PE, trust and FL were notably moderate to low, though

all relationships were significant at the (.01level). The highest relationship was found between

PE and FL, followed by PL and FL, while the least was PL and trust (Refer Table 2).This was

followed by calculating the means for all measures, and gauging correlations amid the

constructs. Notably, all the constructs exhibited significant associations with the research model,

where in the fitness was ‘acceptable’, indicating thereby that the model does fit the data well,

indicating a p value =<0.001.χ2 (180)/df(46) =3.91, CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.46; thus, the results

meet our expectation.

Objective 1: To measure software professionals’ experience of PL, trust in workplace, PE and

FL.

The Study results indicate that Indian software professionals do experience PL, due to their

immediate supervisors, who advocate being optimistic in terms of work-related attitude; provide

support and recognise their contribution with a mean score (4.92). Further, among the sub-

dimensions of PL, we note that 'perspective' had the highest mean (5.11), alluding to the fact that

the supervisors did support the software professionals/employee in terms of solution orientation,

and help them in terms of perceiving a problem positively. This was followed by ‘recognition’

(4.83), alluding to the fact that the supervisors did frequently encourage and reward the

accomplishments of the employees. Further, in terms of ‘strengths’ (4.83), the results affirm that

the supervisors did appreciate their employees’ strengths, while matching their talents to tasks

(Arakawa and Greenberg, 2007).

Additionally, it may be noted that software professionals strongly agreed that they experienced

PE holistically (5.57) (i.e. along with its sub-dimensions). They experienced high 'meaning'

(5.86), followed by 'impact' (5.52), 'self-determination' (5.49) and 'competence' (5.42). However,

they moderately 'agreed' to 'competence', i.e. their confidence about their capability to do their

work well. Furthermore, they also 'agreed' to 'self-determination'; i.e. they were free to make

their decisions, and perform their assignments in their own ways without being micromanaged.

They also experienced emotional development through SI and emotion, due to the prevailing

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

factor of ‘trust’(4.47).

Thus, they experienced

relationships, meaning and accomplishment

The qualitative study served

experiences from the

immediate supervisor

perspective and acknowledging ones

understand the results,

and further interpret the quantitative results.

Table 2 (insert):

Interprets the vi

Source: The Author’s Analysis

Interestingly,23.5%

of the software professionals

was no support or guidance,

and 14%

Table 3: Descriptive Statistics, Model

1. Positive Leadership (PL) and its dimensions and its influence on Flourishing (FL).

2. PE and its dimensions and its influence on Flourishing (FL)

3. Trust and its influence on Flourishing (FL)

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

Thus, they experienced

FL (5.40) due to positive

relationships, meaning and accomplishment

at the workplace (

Refer Table

a guiding principle in order to understand

and appreciate

immediate supervisor

in terms of developing strengths, providing positive

perspective and acknowledging ones

’

contribution via recognition. This allowed

and further interpret the quantitative results.

Interprets the vi

ewpoint of software professionals through qualitative responses

Source: The Author’s Analysis

of the software professionals

did not experience

development,

and 14%

expressed lack of recognition and

encouragement.

Table 3: Descriptive Statistics, Model

Summary, nova

and Coefficient values of:

1. Positive Leadership (PL) and its dimensions and its influence on Flourishing (FL).

2. PE and its dimensions and its influence on Flourishing (FL)

3. Trust and its influence on Flourishing (FL)

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

Unpublished work

emotion, engagement,

Refer Table

3).

and appreciate

positive

in terms of developing strengths, providing positive

contribution via recognition. This allowed

us to better

ewpoint of software professionals through qualitative responses

development,

13% felt there

encouragement.

and Coefficient values of:

1. Positive Leadership (PL) and its dimensions and its influence on Flourishing (FL).

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

Unpublished work

Source: The Author’s Analysis

Table 4: A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient indicated a significant correlation

between the variables at p = 0.01

Positive

Leadership

Psychological

Empowerment

Trust

Positive Leadership

Psychological

Empowerment

.398

Trust

.251

.296

Flourishing

.413

.691

.321**

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Source: The Author’s Analysis

The strongest relationship was seen between FL and PE (.691), while the weakest significant

relationship was between trust and PL (.251). Further, in order to test the hypotheses, we used

multiple regressions that resulted in positive leadership, influencing both the dependent and

mediating variables. After controlling for demographic variables and PL, trust in workplace and

PE were significantly associated with FL. Notably, PL successfully predicts FL (R2=17.6,

P<0.01), while trust successfully predicts FL (R2=9.2%, P<0.01), and PE (R2=4.93, P<0.01).

STG

PER

REC

MEN

IMP

COMP

Trust

FLR

Mean

4.92

4.83

5.11

4.83

5.57

5.86

5.52

5.49

5.42

4.47

5.56

0.66

0.828

0.792

0.814

0.635

0.713

0.714

0.787

0.731

0.678

Model

Summary R2 17.6

49.3

9.8

Annova

63.638

217.119

96.944

Sif

0.000b

0.108

0.21

0.113

0.192

0.355

0.152

0.98

0.312

Coefficient

3.379

6.943

3.604

6.010

9.068

4.837

0.98

9.846

Sig

0.001

0.000

0.00

0.327

0.000

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H1. Positive leadership does influence flourishing

PL, along with its dimensions significantly influences FL, thereby predicting a variance of

(17.6%) at (P < 0 .001). Among the sub-dimensions, strength, perspective and recognition

significantly predicted FL at (P<0.001) levels (Refer Table3). Thus, H1 is accepted, whereby we

affirm that PL does significantly influence FL.

H2: Trust does influence impact flourishing (FL)

Software professionals did acknowledge that they did have an emotional connect with their

immediate supervisors, resulting in experiencing trust at workplace, which in turn, influenced

flourishing at a variance of (9.8%)at (P< 0.000)level, (Refer Table3). Thus, H2too is accepted.

H3: Psychological Empowerment does influence flourishing

PE predicts (49.3%) of the variance, and thereby significantly influences FL at P< 0.000 level.

Among the sub-dimensions, meaning’ (B=0.192, P<.000) ‘self-determination’ (B=.152, P<.000)

and impact (B=.357, P<.000) significantly predict FL (Refer Table 3), indicating thereby that PE

is indeed adequate in influencing FL, while affirming that H3too is accepted.

H4: Psychological Empowerment does indirectly influence the relationship amid positive

leadership and flourishing.

The model specifies that PE (intervening variable) mediates with the three predictors of PL and

FL, at an indirect variance of(60.36% at P<0.001 level). Notably, the ratio of the indirect to the

direct effect is (1.5%, Refer Figure 2).Additionally, it may also be noted that PL does influence

FL both directly and indirectly through PE; therefore, H4 is also accepted(refer to table 5).

Figure 2: demonstrating the direct and in-direct paths amid PL and PE; PE and FL; PL and FL;

PL-PE-FL. IV: Independent Variable.

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Source: Author’s analysis

Table 5: Gist of outcome of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive

Leadership (PL) and Flourishing (FL) by Psych

Hypothesized

Sobel Test Percentage of the total Ratio of the indirect

Mediating Effect Statistic

H4: PL - PE –

FL 11.469

______________________________________________________________________________

Source: The Author’s Analysis

Table 6: Regression Analysis for Significance of Mediation of PE in the Path PL

IV DV

PL FL

PL PE

PL FL

.385(.398)

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Table 5: Gist of outcome of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive

Leadership (PL) and Flourishing (FL) by Psych

ological Empowerment (PE)

Sobel Test Percentage of the total Ratio of the indirect

effect that is mediated to the direct effect P

FL 11.469

60.361 1.522

______________________________________________________________________________

Source: The Author’s Analysis

Table 6: Regression Analysis for Significance of Mediation of PE in the Path PL

Un-

Standardised

Coefficient

Standardised

Coefficient

Beta

t value p-

value

0.424 0.413 13.574

<.001

0.385 0.398 12.999

<.001

0.168 0.164 6.354

<.001

0.665 0.626 24.302

<.001

.424(.413)

For PE as IV

.665 (.626)

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Table 5: Gist of outcome of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive

ological Empowerment (PE)

Sobel Test Percentage of the total Ratio of the indirect

effect that is mediated to the direct effect P

-value

<.001

______________________________________________________________________________

Table 6: Regression Analysis for Significance of Mediation of PE in the Path PL

- PE - FL

value

<.001

0.17

<.001

0.159

<.001

0.5

<.001

For PE as IV

.168 (.164)

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Table 7. Relative standardize

d direct effect, relative standardized indirect effects and relative

total effects for independent variable Positive Leadership (PL), mediating variables

and dependent variables –

Flourishing (FL)

Mediation Path

Direct Effect



FL .168**

** effects are significant at p<.001 (2 tailed tests of significance)

Source: The Author’s Analysis

H5: Trust does mediate the relationship between positive leadership and flourishing.

Results indicate that trust (intervening variable) mediates with the three predictors of both PL

and FL at a mediating variance of (13.55 %, at P<0.001). The ratio of both the indirect and direct

effect is (0.15%, Refer Figure 3). PL influences FL both di

thus, H5 is supported (refer to Table 8).

Table 8: Summary of results of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive

Leadership (PL) and Flourishing (FL) by trust

Hypothesized

Sobel Test Per

Mediating Effect Statistic effect that is mediated to the direct effect P

H5: PL - trust –

FL 5.341 13.555

_____________________________________________________________________________

Source: The Authors Analysis

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) Feb 2021.

d direct effect, relative standardized indirect effects and relative

total effects for independent variable Positive Leadership (PL), mediating variables

Flourishing (FL)

Direct Effect

Indirect Effect Total Effect

.322** .490**

** effects are significant at p<.001 (2 tailed tests of significance)

Source: The Author’s Analysis

H5: Trust does mediate the relationship between positive leadership and flourishing.

Results indicate that trust (intervening variable) mediates with the three predictors of both PL

and FL at a mediating variance of (13.55 %, at P<0.001). The ratio of both the indirect and direct

effect is (0.15%, Refer Figure 3). PL influences FL both di

rectly and indirectly through trust;

thus, H5 is supported (refer to Table 8).

Table 8: Summary of results of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive

Leadership (PL) and Flourishing (FL) by trust

Sobel Test Per

centage of the total Ratio of the indirect

Mediating Effect Statistic effect that is mediated to the direct effect P

FL 5.341 13.555

0.1

_____________________________________________________________________________

Source: The Authors Analysis

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d direct effect, relative standardized indirect effects and relative

total effects for independent variable Positive Leadership (PL), mediating variables

- PE (PE)

Decision

Partial Mediation

H5: Trust does mediate the relationship between positive leadership and flourishing.

Results indicate that trust (intervening variable) mediates with the three predictors of both PL

and FL at a mediating variance of (13.55 %, at P<0.001). The ratio of both the indirect and direct

rectly and indirectly through trust;

Table 8: Summary of results of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive

centage of the total Ratio of the indirect

Mediating Effect Statistic effect that is mediated to the direct effect P

-value

<.001

_____________________________________________________________________________

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Gist of outcome of Sobel’s test for mediation of the relationship between Positive Leadership

(PL) and Flourishing (FL) by trust

Figure 3: Demonstrating the direct and mediating routes amidst PL and Trust; Trust and FL; PL

and FL; PL-Trust:-FL.

Source: The Author’s Analysis: Note: IV: Independent Variable

Table 9: Summary of Regression Analysis for Significance of Mediation of trust in

the Path PL – Trust - FL

IV DV

Un-

Standardised

Coefficient

Standardised

Coefficient

Beta

t value p-

value R

PL FL 0.424 0.413 13.574 <.001 0.17

PL Trust 0.258 0.251 7.778 <.001 0.063

PL FL 0.367 0.357 11.682 <.001 0.217

Trust 0.223 0.223 7.288 <.001

Source: The Author’s Analysis

TRUST

.258(.251)

.424(.413)

For PL as IV

.367(.357)

For TRUST as

IV .223(.223)

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Table 10: Relative standardized direct effect, relative standardized indirect effects and relative

total effects for independent variable Positive Leadership (PL), mediating variables - Trust and

dependent variables - Flourishing (FL)

Mediation Path Direct Effect Indirect Effect Total Effect Decision



trust



FL .428** .059** .487** Partial Mediation

** effects are significant at p<.001 (2 tailed tests of significance)Source: The Author’s Analysis

Source: The Author’s Analysis

DISCUSSION

The hypotheses, all being ‘accepted’, do indicate that PL predicts positivity, and foes have a

positive influence on software developers. They experienced PL at the workplace due to their

immediate supervisors going on to enhance their level of trust, PE and FL. Further, based on our

results, we also affirm that PL significantly predicts FL both directly and indirectly with trust in

workplace and PE, confirming thereby that overall; PL does have significant influence on the

study constructs.

Holistically speaking, the results revealed that IT leaders nurtured positive deviance in order to

accomplish both individual and organisational objectives with effectiveness. While most

leadership studies continue to focus explicitly around traits of leaders, researchers need to focus

on the quality of the process of influence by concentrating on positivity, trust and empowerment

which strengthens and sustains the leaders influence on followers. However it is relevant to

appreciate the significance of heliotropic effect and positive deviant performance, contributing

towards employee flourishing. The salience of this study is that it captures the software

professional’s experience of PL at workplace, as demonstrated by the immediate supervisor.

Evidences from this study both qualitative and quantitative go on to reinforce leadership

literature, by focusing on the relationship between the leader and the follower (i.e. employee),

which effectively stands out due to the intermediating factors of ‘enhanced trust’ (Brower et al.,

2000), empowerment (Shahid and Muchiri,2019) work engagement (Sunil and Patrick, 2021)

and wellbeing and flourishing (Cherkowski et al., 2020).

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Our qualitative study points out that immediate supervisor do have higher level of engagement

with software professionals via positive perspective practices. When software professionals

experience meaning, impact, competence and self-determination, they become rationally alert,

emotionally accessible, and thereby are driven and motivated to carry out their assignments with

vigour and dedication. The quantitative results of the study indicate that apart from competence,

all the other sub-dimensions do have a positive relationship with FL, supporting thereby the

study of the Self-determination Theory (SDT) (Ryan et al., 2008).When software professionals

do experience meaning in their work, it goes on to contribute towards the larger organisational

objectives (self-determination and impact), which in turn, goes on to increase their level of well-

being (Kelloway et al., 2013), yielding therefore in lesser turnover intentions (Jena et al, 2019:

Rantika and Yustina,2017). Additionally, the software professionals’ trust is positively related to

their social associations, and is effectively reflected in the society at large, due to their free-

thinking and value systems. In fact, trust could even be the most important unnoticed benefit in

terms of flourishing. The study results go on to reinforce that trusting behaviour is indeed vital,

irrespective of the economy or the sector. It is also an important factor towards enhancing

employee well-being, and organisational performance at large. Interestingly, literature does not

seem to support the fact that trust is different for software professionals in different countries or

economies. Nevertheless, Edelman’s Trust Barometer report, (2019) suggested that Indians

software professionals are the most trusted globally.

The mediating hypothesis model was tested and was found to be a good fit. The structural

equation modelling approach permits to deal with more than one variable as sole latent variable.

By using the items means its sub-facets are its dimension pointers in the path-analysis indicating

significant relationship amid positive leadership directly and indirectly on flourishing via

psychological empowerment and trust. A positive leader's approach in ITO not only builds trust

among software professionals but also enhances psychological well-being, due to immediate

supervisors empowering behaviour. Path analysis indicated that psychological empowerment

positively influences flourishing. However, the self-efficacy of software professionals do

eliminate the shortcoming and provide them the capability to learn, develop and flourish

supporting previous research (Biswas-Diener, 2011: Cameron, 2010: Dutton, et al., 2010). The

results confirm that psychological empowerment does facilitate the association with flourishing

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Unpublished work

and positive leadership increases employees overall flourishing (Dewettinck and Van Ameijde,

2011: Cameron, 2010). The study also suggests a significant association with positive

leadership’s recognition and flourishing. The study’s mediating result aligns with previous

research indicating that positive leadership theories increases social well-being and flourishing

due to empowerment (Zbierowskia and Górab 2014: Cameron, 2012: Dhiman, 2011).The second

path analysis indicates that trust positively influences flourishing. When software professional’s

experiences trust it increases employee morale leading to self-efficacy, loyalty, higher

performance, efficiency (Covey and Merrill, 2018) and flourishing (Witt, 2017: McQuaid, 2016:

Keyes, 2014). Due to higher level of trust experienced by software professionals in workplace

they are likely to become organisations brand ambassadors (78%), demonstrate loyalty (74%),

appreciate organisational values (71%), and committed to their jobs (83%) as per (Edelman Trust

Barometer, 2019). Though Cui et al. (2015) indicated that social trust in workplace is being

moderately unexplored, the study accentuates that trust is abundant in facilitating flourishing.

Research indicates that trust and well-being is positively impacted due to the positive association

of immediate supervisor enhancing recognition, better engagement and employee flourishing

(Gough, 2018:Witt, 2017).

The mixed method outcomes in the study contributes to the existing debates in the leadership

studies (in terms of team member’s positive experiences).The study highlights the software

professional’s positive experiences in the process of underlining the importance of recognition,

strength based and positive perspective approach with reference to employee flourishing at

workplace. The mixed method analysis emphasise the importance of positive leadership and

further enhances the understanding of virtuous behaviour at workplace towards flourishing. The

outcomes of this method add new insights to one-another. Example: the quantitative survey

indicates the software professional’s perception of positive perspective demonstrated by

immediate supervisor is 5.11 Mean score in a scale of 7, whereas the qualitative analysis

indicates 87%. The qualitative study integrates with the quantitative results indicating that the

positive leadership sub-dimensions builds an atmosphere of trust, obligation and enablement,

which is essential for software developers to execute their tasks with higher level of engagement.

These factors allow them to explore new ideas, experiment, and support through recognition and

constructive feedback boosting their morale, self-confidence and trust (Tiwari and Lenka, 2019).

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As organisations need to create value and develop leaders, positive leadership is a significant

behaviour that could enhance psychological empowerment and trust in workplace directly and

indirectly to enhance flourishing.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATION

The study highlighted the need for developing positive leadership practices, which are likely to

develop positive deviant performance of software professionals leading to positive work

environment and flourishing. The implications for practice thereby must look at interventions in

organisations that are specifically designed to enhance positive leadership, empowerment, trust

and flourishing among employees. Thus far, most of the studies conducted under the aegis of

service organisations considered at mitigating the negative deviance with reference to

organisational health index, especially stress, turnover etc. (Kelloway et al., 2008). However,

thestudy did indicate that in order to enhance employee flourishing, it is necessary to increase

positive experiences at the workplace via positive deviance interventions

Literature supported the effectiveness of leadership development interventions (Avolio, et al.,

2009), and the current studydoes indicate that when immediate supervisors practice positivity or

positive leadership, it is operationalized within a goal-setting framework (Locke and Latham,

2002), going on to enhance employee flourishing. Thus, in today’s world, it is almost obligatory

for organisations to invest on positive leadership programs, and trust development workshops,

which would enhance an individual’s positive practices, including affirmative behaviour in terms

of engaging in strength-based approach. Further, organisational practices and policies must

reflect upon positive practices and virtuous behaviour, so that employees can perform, and

achieve their optimal potential, and thereby contribute significantly to the larger organisational

objectives. Importantly, as ITOs require software professionals not only to excel in their

assignments but also to develop positive leadership traits to manage and work with teams,

customers and other stakeholders, the findings of our study would be highly relevant.

THEORETICAL IMPLICATION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

This study significantly adds value to the subject on PL, as we were unable to trace any study

that investigates all the four variables (i.e. PL, trust, PE and FL) in a single research. This study

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shed light on the association of immediate supervisors and employees, wherein the former acts as

an intrinsic motivator in affecting organizational and individual-level positive behavioural

outcomes. Further, this study establishes trust in workplace and PE as a significant mediating

variable that in turn, influences FL, contributing thereby to extant literature thereof. On the other

hand, we did note that PE significantly increases the influence on DV (dependent variable-

flourishing) indirectly; while trust in workplace decreases the influence on DV indirectly,

although both do have significant interrelationship, and they influence DV.

The results also indicate that there is an influence of positive leadership on software

professionals in the given context of ITOs; however, this finding does demand a further re-look,

possibly through a longitudinal study based on the theories of organisational behaviour

(Kellowayand Francis, 2012). This study did focus on daily interaction between immediate

supervisor and the employees, asserting thereby the former’s affirmative behaviour (i.e. strength

development, positive perspective and recognition). Additionally, it may also be noted that PL

experienced by software professionals, does enhance leadership development; and these positive

behaviours do significantly influence workplace behaviour at large, concurring thereby with the

earlier study by Mullen and Kelloway, (2009).

The studies does have good inferences about the mediating roles of trust and psychological

empowerment between positive leadership and flourishing indicating that longitudinal and

experimental study will add further value to understand the causal relationships between the

constructs. Though theoretically literature indicates there is a strong rationale that positive

leadership theories as a contextual constructs relate to flourishing via perception or enhancement

of trust in workplace and psychological empowerment. Earlier studies indicate that longitudinal

research has resulted in leadership precedes employee well-being (Nielsen, Randall, Yarker, and

Brenner, 2008).

This study focused only on PL influencing FL; based on the same, future research could possibly

investigate how employees’ psychological and emotional well-being can be related to PL, trust

and PE. Future studies can also explore the leadership theories such as authentic (George, 2003)

servant (Greenleaf, 2002), social processes (Parry, 1998), leader-member-exchange (Graen and

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Uhl-Bien, 1995), ethical (Brown et al., 2005) and transformational (Bass, 1985) are primarily

associated with positive deviance and flourishing. Employee well-being is determined by an

individual's job role (Spreitzer et al., 2005), suggesting investigating the various roles in ITO and

its influence on employee flourishing. Examination can lead to an organizational design

blueprint that leads to higher software professionals' experience of flourishing. Future research

can investigate in what conditions, role requirements, type and size of organizations; the

experience of flourishing may not be desirable or may also have an unfavourable influence and

positive leadership being not effective. Optimistic emotions increase the relationship amid

psychological empowerment and engagement (Spreitzer, 2007), indicating a substantial

relationship between engagement, well-being and employee thriving (Spreitzer et al., 2010).

Researchers can also investigate whether PE can affect team-members flourishing via leader’s

positive emotions or psychological capital indirectly (mediator). These studies will contribute

towards the positive psychology literature (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), as well add to

Frederickson’s (2001) theory of broaden-and-build. This study proposed only two mediators;

future researchers could investigate other constructs, both as mediators and moderators and/or

even as serial mediation in order to discuss the association of positive leadership vis a vis its

influence. Additionally, this paper focused on employee flourishing in the context of software

professionals, owing to the positive leadership qualities of the immediate supervisor. Lot of

emphasis has indeed been laid on the supervisor-team-member relationship (i.e. leader–member-

exchange) (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995). Thus, these aspects could also be scrutinized further to

lend newer insights, which in turn, would add value to literature, in terms of understanding

whether positive leadership does complement this theory.

The study used self-report instrument because the variables were individual and personal expect

positive leadership. The respondents were to talk about their experience about the constructs. In

the case of positive leadership they were sharing the experience based on their immediate

supervisor. Notably, to diminish common method bias, the questionnaire was administered in

three phases, the respondents of these organisations were met at different points in time some

items were reverse coded. On the other hand, mixed-method was espoused, where some of the

quantitative outcomes complemented qualitative data. The study items were well-designed with

multiple factor statements which reduces the CMB (Spector, 1987).

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Conclusion

In today’s fast changing and uncertain economy, both leaders and employees need positivity, not

only to cope with current situation, but to build trust in workplace, empower, innovate and

flourish. When leaders do empower their team members, it adds ownership and accountability to

the existing role. This drives result-oriented performance, and thereby creates a sense of

appreciation and meaningfulness. The mixed method adds value to the study by improving the

rationality and consistency of the data and reinforces the causal inferences by providing the

opportunity to witness data convergence in terms of positive leadership experiences at

workplace. Positive leadership and flourishing are intertwined, i.e., the development of strength-

based, positive perspective and recognition do create positive organisational culture for software

professionals to flourish. Positive leaders effectively lay the foundations for true leadership

success and employee development towards flourishing. This study suggests that

supervisors/leaders have added influence on team members/employees in terms of experiencing

positivity in the workplace directly and indirectly leading to trust, psychological empowerment,

productivity, commitment, higher level of engagement, along with satisfaction and flourishing.

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Positive leadership: animating purpose, presence, passion and play for flourishing in schools

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2020

Purpose The purpose of this multiyear research study is to examine leadership in K-12 schools using a positive organizational perspective to understand how to foster, support and encourage flourishing in schools. In this article, the authors describe the lived experiences of a small group of principals and vice-principals in K-12 schools describing how they have experienced flourishing in their work. Design/methodology/approach The research was carried out using a qualitative, phenomenological approach to examine the lived, concrete and situated experiences of a small sample of school administrators ( N = 9) in two school districts in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Data were collected through individual interviews that were designed to be appreciative in nature. These lasted between 60 and 90 min, were recorded and transcribed. The interview data were deductively and inductively analyzed and arranged into themes that demonstrate the key components of positive leadership for flourishing in schools, derived from these participants' experiences. Findings Building on and extending their findings that school administrators feel a sense of flourishing when they focus on their work from the values of purpose, passion and play, the authors found that a fourth value, presence, was important for these participants to experience well-being at work. Principals’ sense of well-being was strongly related to the notion of balance in their work and life, which helped them address potential stress and ill-being. Findings suggest that a strengths-based, positive approach to school leadership offers an alternative perspective for supporting and encouraging well-being at work. Research limitations/implications Limitations of this research include the small sample size and the appreciative focus with which the data were collected that meant that participants were providing their experiences from a positive perspective. This article offers a complementary perspective for researching well-being in schools, from a positive, strengths-based approach to examining the work of administrators. Practical implications The authors offer insights into the work of school leaders from an appreciative, strengths-based perspective on understandings and practices that may be useful to principals and vice-principals who wish to enhance their workplace well-being. The authors suggest that administrators can learn to craft their work in ways that highlight existing well-being conditions toward amplifying and sustaining well-being. Working from four animating values for flourishing seemed to promote well-being for this small sample of administrators within the existing challenges and complexities of their work. Originality/value This article offers examples of lived experiences of principal and vice-principal well-being that highlight what happens when school leaders attend to their work from a positive, appreciative, strength-based perspective. This research perspective is an additional source of knowledge about well-being in schools complementing the existing research on well-being from a stress management and reduction perspective.

DRIVING PERFORMANCE THROUGH POSITIVE LEADERSHIP

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2019

This conceptual paper is an attempt to outline positive leadership and its sub-dimensions. Several progressive theories on positive leadership have observed that, the understanding, developmental process and implementation of positive leadership still remains largely under-researched by scholars from both the fields of leadership and positive psychology. Researchers have identified that good job performance is strongly related to positive style of leadership. The aim of this article is to highlight varied concepts of positive leadership and its meaning. Positive leadership is bascially about respecting people with whom we work, recognising their competencies, contributions, and acknowledging the fact that they are our first customer with whom we do business. It is also about how they shape optimisim as part of the organisational culture over time, formulate positive strategy, introduce positive organisational design and develop available talent using their strengths into potential human capital. Method: A descriptive methodology was adopted to explore the available literature. The paper presents the concepts of positive leadership, leadership theories that form part of the positive leadership style, approaches and dimensions to positive leadership. They are defined and equated along with similar relationships with other leadership theories or concepts such as transformational, authentic and servant leadership. Findings: The review of literature indicated many similiarities and associations between concepts of positive leadership and leadership behaviour styles. It also found strong relationship between positive leadership behaviour and outcomes such as performace, satisfaction, trust, empowerment, engagement and other critical behaviours that make organisations both eff ective and efficient

High Commitment Human Resource Management Practices and Employee Service Behavior: Trust in Management as Mediator

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2018

This research considers high commitment human resource management (HCHRM) practices as a higher-order reflective construct and examines its effect on employee service behavior in the banking industry of Bangladesh. Testing our hypotheses on 365 line managers, we find a positive relationship between HCHRM and both in-role and extra-role service behavior. Moreover, trust in management significantly mediates the relationship between HCHRM and in-role service behavior and does not mediate the relationship between HCHRM and extra-role service behavior. The present paper recommends future research to look for the mediating effect of other employee responses in the link between HCHRM and employee outcomes.

EFFECTS OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2017

Leaders who promote ethical behavior are believed to affect their employees’ well-being. This study was conducted to examine psychological empowerment as the intervening variable that connects ethical leadership to employees’ well-being, work engagement, and emotional exhaustion. By using a mail survey, we distributed questionnaires to 219 auditors from 11 public accounting firms in Jakarta. All the hypotheses in this study were supported. Ethical leadership has a positive effect on psychological empowerment. Thus, psychological empowerment positively relates to work engagement and negatively relates to emotional exhaustion. The result demonstrated that psychological empowerment partially mediates the effect of ethical leadership on work engagement and fully mediates the effect on ethical leadership and emotional exhaustion. The findings reveal that ethical leadership stimulates the psychological empowerment of the employee, thus, it enhances work engagement and also minimizes emotional exhaustion.

Impact of employee wellbeing on psychological empowerment: mediating role of happiness

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2017

Abstract: The present study was carried out to examine the influence of employee wellbeing on psychological empowerment (i.e., meaning, competence, self-determination and impact). Efforts have been made to investigate the mediating role of happiness in relationship between employees’ wellbeing and empowerment. A set of standard questionnaires on psychological empowerment, wellbeing and happiness was used for data collection. Data were collected on 96 executives randomly selected from Indian service sector. Multivariate statistics were used for analysis of the data. The results of the study revealed that employee wellbeing was positively associated with employee empowerment. Happiness was found to be a significant mediator between employee wellbeing and empowerment. Implications of the study were discussed in the context of Indian service industry for possible organisational development interventions to enhance employee wellbeing for greater empowerment. Keywords: employee wellbeing; psychological empowerment; happiness; service industry.

Am I empowered through Meaningful Work? The moderating role of Perceived Flexibility connecting Meaningful Work and Psychological Empowerment

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2019

Abstract The study investigates the role of meaningful work in shaping psychological empowerment of employees. In today’s scenario, it is also imperative to understand how flexibility affects employee psyche in its conceptualization for empowerment. Therefore, the present study took into consideration perceived flexibility as a possible moderator between meaningful work and psychological empowerment. A sample of 288 executives was taken from manufacturing unit in eastern India. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) carried out through LISREL 8.8 to assess the distinctness of the constructs in our study. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed a significant moderating role of perceived flexibility in the association between meaningful work and psychological empowerment. Implication of the study is discussed in light of the findings. Keywords: Meaningful work, Perceived flexibility, Psychological empowerment, Manufacturing professionals, India.

Positive Leadership: Relationships with Employee Inclusion, Discrimination, and Well‐Being

Article

Oct 2019

The diverse nature of 21st‐century organizations has compelled leaders to minimize discrimination and bring about inclusion amongst their employees. One of the ways this can be achieved is through authentic, respectful and inclusive leadership. The aim of the present paper was to 1) explore whether the three leadership styles can promote inclusion and curtail discrimination in the South African context, and 2) ascertain whether this relationship has any bearing on well‐being across Dutch, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, and South African contexts. To reach these aims, two cross‐sectional studies have been conducted. In Study 1, 569 employees were surveyed, and results indicated that all three leadership styles loaded on a common latent factor (positive leadership) that was positively associated with both inclusion and discrimination. In Study 2, 1,926 employees were surveyed across the five countries. Results indicated that once again, the latent, positive leadership factor was positively associated with both inclusion and discrimination. Furthermore, inclusion, when compared to discrimination seemed to be a stronger mediator in the relationship between positive leadership and well‐being. We propose leadership development that will cultivate positive leadership behaviors for the benefit of employee well‐being and collaboration in increasingly diverse teams.

Employee engagement: A study of survivors in Indian IT/ITES sector

Article

Oct 2019

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework of employee engagement and employer branding of downsized organizations. It examines the association of certain enablers (resonant leadership, internal corporate communication, knowledge sharing, continuous learning, intrapreneurship, and perceived communication satisfaction) with employee engagement. Further, it investigates the association of employee engagement with employer branding. A sample of 220 middle managers of IT/ITES companies from select states of India were empirically tested to examine the proposed relationships. These managers are from the MNCs that have downsized since 2008-09 economic recession. The hypothesized relationship was tested using Structural Equation Modelling with AMOS 21 software package. Results indicate that internal corporate communication, knowledge sharing, continuous learning, intrapreneurship, and perceived communication satisfaction were positively associated with employee engagement. Employee engagement is also positively associated with employer branding. However, resonant leadership style is negatively associated with employee engagement. This study makes a unique contribution to the literature of survivor syndrome by providing a theoretical framework of employee engagement in downsized firms, and subsequently rebuilding organizations as a strong employer brand. This study further establishes reliability and validity of the variables used in the conceptual framework. This study would guide future managers to decide an alternative measure to downsizing. A longitudinal research can be carried out to check cause and effect relationships among the variables. Large samples can be used to generalize the findings in Indian IT/ITES sector. A comparative study can be done between public and private organizations.

Positivity at the workplace: Conceptualising the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, organisational virtuousness, thriving and job performance

Article

Dec 2018
Int J Organ Anal

Purpose Recognising the value of positive organisational behaviour at the workplace, this paper aims to provide a major review of the current state of research on positivity, and subsequently proposes new pathways for more theory building relating to important constructs conceptually related to positivity. Following the integration of emerging but disparate research on workplace positivity and related concepts, the paper develops a conceptual framework depicting the relationships amongst authentic leader behaviours, organisational virtuousness, psychological capital, thriving and job performance. Design/methodology/approach The paper offers a systematic critical review of published studies representing the literature addressing authentic leadership, organisational virtuousness, thriving, psychological capital and job performance. The paper relied on computerised keyword searches in the main business source databases of Emerald, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost and SpringerLink. Findings This paper leads to a conceptual framework proposing direct relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, organisational virtuousness and job performance. Further, authentic leadership is proposed to potentially nurture organisational virtuousness, psychological capital, employee thriving and job performance, given the theoretical linkages between these conceptually relevant variables related to positivity. Additionally, organisational virtuousness and psychological capital are projected to mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and employee thriving. Finally, organisational virtuousness, psychological capital and employee thriving are designated as mediators of the relationship between authentic leadership and job performance. Research limitations/implications This paper proposes a conceptual framework focusing on one form of positive leader behaviour and also assumes specific causal pathways using a positivistic research approach to understanding the leadership–performance relationship. The paper did not examine all possible antecedents of positivity at the workplace. Practical implications The proposed conceptual framework should form the basis of many organisational interventions, especially in relation to boosting authentic leadership, organisational virtuousness, psychological capital, employee thriving and job performance. By suggesting the association between authentic leadership, psychological capital and organisational virtuousness, this paper highlights potential benefits from effective leaders’ commitment to enhancing psychological capital and organisational virtuousness and engendering thriving behaviour and job performance. Originality/value This novel paper has the potential to stimulate the empirical studies on workplace positivity through the association of authentic leadership, psychological capital, organisational virtuousness and thriving.

Workplace interventions for occupational stress

Article

Mar 2008

Research consistently has documented the same phenomenon across the developed world: as the pace of competition increases and we enter a truly global marketplace, stress and its consequences are becoming epidemic (Sauter, Murphy, and Hurrell, 1990). Increased work hours, increased pressure, increased insecurity (e.g. Bond, Galinsky, and Swanberg, 1997), and myriad other organizational stressors have immediate and long-term consequences for both individuals and organizations. Consequently, it is not surprising that research on work stress has proliferated. However, the question of what organizations can do to avert or mitigate the negative consequences of stress – arguably the single most important question in the field – remains largely unaddressed and, therefore, unanswered. In this chapter, we summarize what is known about how organizations can deal with the proliferation of organizational stressors. In doing so, we also attempt to identify what is not known – thereby establishing agendas for both practice and research. A model of job stress A variety of “models” of job stress exist, varying in both their breadth and the complexity of the processes underlying the model predictions (Kelloway and Day, 2005a). Despite diverse theoretical approaches, we suggest that most work stress researchers would agree with a basic model postulating that a set of organizational stressors (i.e. events that occur in the work environment outside the individual; Pratt and Barling, 1988) may be perceived as stressful by the individual, and consequently can result in a variety of strain reactions (see, for example, Hurrell and Kelloway, in press).

POSITIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES ENHANCES FLOURISHING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION IN INDIA

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