Accentuate the positive : organizational and personal consequences of positive leadership

Abstract

For this thesis, I examined the relationship between positive leadership and follower work behaviours through two studies. In the first, 313 employees participated in a study to examine how leaders’ positivity and positive leadership affect that of their followers. The purpose of the study was to explore if leaders’ positivity and enactment of positive leadership predicted follower positivity, which then predicted follower innovation, and burnout. Study Two built on the established positive leadership behaviour constructs by assessing an intervention aimed at enhancing positive leadership behaviours. The leadership intervention was assessed using a field experiment in which 80 leaders and their followers from a long-term health care organization were randomly assigned to leader positivity training, positive leadership training, a combined positivity and positive leadership training group or a control group. In this study the effects of training on followers’ perceptions of leaders’ positivity, follower positivity, burnout, and innovation were assessed. The two-study analysis supported the two positive leadership constructs and revealed that positive leadership affects follower burnout, while leader positivity affects follower positivity and innovation.