Authentic Leadership and Positive Psychological Capital

TLDR

The study examines how authentic leadership, trust, and positive psychological capital relate to group performance. Data from a small Midwestern retail clothing chain were aggregated at the store level to test relationships among authentic leadership, trust, PsyCap, and performance. Trust mediates the link between PsyCap and performance and partially mediates the link between authentic leadership and performance.

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between authentic leadership, trust, positive psychological capital (PsyCap), and performance at the group level of analysis. Data were collected from a small Midwestern chain of retail clothing stores, a context in which the needs for both authentic leadership and a positive sales staff are integral to the firm's performance. Constructs were aggregated to the store (group) level to test relationships between perceptions of authentic leadership, trust in management, positive psychological capital, and performance. Trust in management was found to mediate the relationship between PsyCap and performance and to partially mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and performance. Future discussions and implications are discussed.