How transformational leadership contributes to employee well-being?

Abstract

Studying leadership from human resource management point of view requires the need to connect leadership theories with employee well-being concepts. A leader or manager has an enormous effect on subordinates’ well-being at the workplace. Managers always have to find the balance between performance (how effective the organization is) and morale (how people feel themselves) at the organization. They manage people in order to be able to perform several tasks and achieve previously setted goals. After providing a brief overview about transformational leadership and employee well-being concepts, the idea of psychological capital is discussed in detail. This conceptual paper aims to introduce a quite new concept in organization studies: positive psychological capital. According to the author of this paper psychological aspects have significant effects in leadership and employee well-being theories. Positive psychology and positive organization studies enhance to build psychological capital at the workplace which is considered to be a huge competitive advantage in the future for organizations. Based on the four main components of psychological capital: hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience, possible areas for future qualitative research are identified. Following these recommended areas for future research it will be possible to empirically observe how transformational leadership and employee well-being are connected through psychological capital.