Requirements
Lead by the example is a common dictate for the leaders working in various types of organization. Leaders set an example by showing that the task is achievable. They can also correct the methods of the others for the best results in a given task. When we add certain behavior based attributes in the same trait of the leadership then it converts a leader into an authentic leader. An authentic leader is a leader that sets an example of good conduct and organizational behavior in front of all the employees.
The concept of the Authentic Leadership gives us an idea about a leader who is appointed in a group not because of his technical expertise but because of his managerial and leadership traits as well. As an organization, Google can be the best example of this practice. The organizational structure of the Google divides various members into small teams. They appoint a non-technical hand in each team with an intention to handle the managerial part and communication part (Eric Schmdit, 2014).
According to Hui Wang (2014), an authentic leader is a leader that deals with the psychological conditions and emotions of the employees under various attempts to bring them under the apt mind frame for the best work. For instance, certain young aspirants may become a victim of a role conflict; they might think that they are underperforming in accordance with their qualification. It is the job of an authentic leader to access this situation and come up with a resolve (Hui Wang, 2014).
The test of PsyCap can be considered as a tool in the hands of an Authentic leader, an assessment based on a PsyCap test can give us a result on minimum 24 traits of an individual, based on this report an authentic leader can draw an LMX framework for an individual or an employee. Although the variables can be increased in various cases, however, most of the experts believe that 24 traits are sufficient (Lorenz, 2016)
Traits like integrity, readiness for the change, peer relationships, ability to communicate the thoughts and the overall acceptance of the individual in the group are some common traits that we can check (Selvaraj, 2014). A PsyCap test also has this potential to figure out the problems in the behavior of an individual on a diagnostic level. For instance, if we find that an individual is not responding well to his team then what are the areas where he is required to work upon. For instance, some employees react to the conditions rather than solving them with the help of a pro attitude or the supportive attitude (Luthans, 2010). It is a personality conflict and it cannot be measured on the metrics of the performance and the efficiency of an employee. The resultant of a hostile approach brings its impact on the effectiveness of an employee, a PsyCap test, in this case, can be the next step after a peer to peer review done on an employee (Abbas, 2011).
The relationship between LMX, PsyCap and Authentic leadership
It a general observation that companies hire employees on the merit of their IQ and intelligence, however, it is seen that most of the employees falter because they don’t find themselves comfortable with the certain other traits of the employees and teams. This is another dimension that can be handled with the help of an LMX exercise. Performance measurement is a tangible measure where we can quantify certain aspects of the performance, however, the issues or conflicts connected to the emotional responses of an employee demands the relational framework of AL intervention, LMX framework and PsyCap testing (Bouzari, 2017).
An LMX framework or a program has the potential to place the authentic leader or certain other members of the team as a mediator in the process of resolving the case. Leader-member exchange is a process that follows certain steps, where a leader motivates a member to resolve the issues and give him guidance during the course. There are two types of leaders. The first type of leaders wins the status of the leader because of their experience in the task or the organization. The second types of leaders are the authentic leader. An authentic leader can be judged on the merit of 16 traits. We can even go for a PsyCap test of an authentic leader as well.
The final variables of the job performance of the employee and the presence of certain control variables can help an authentic leader in measuring up the success of the LMX exercise. The performance of an authentic leader and LMX are interconnected, the PsyCap test allows an authentic leader to adjudge the worth of his efforts that he has done in an LMX program.
In the year 2006 when rest of the automobile companies in the USA were feeling the pangs of the recession, Ford Motors made brisk money by launching some of their previously failed cars on a lower price. They were keen on killing their own star brands for the time being. This strategy worked well for them. Many experts believe that it happened because of the psychological capital that this organization earned during the great recession of the 1930s. This psychological capital was stored in the legacies of the organization where they celebrated their success stories with the new employees. This is one example; think about a PsyCap test based on the past success of an organization. Think about its impact on the present think tank. The answer is simple; the last example has the potential to influence the think tank of the present times a great deal (Hassan, 2012).
Many experts believe that LMX exercises can be designed in favor of building a psychological capital for the organizations. The Cohort of a military organization is the best example for preserving the psychological capital of an organization. The psychological capital of an organization also plays a crucial role in the group management dynamism of the organization as well.
Let s divide an organization into two basic parts, the first part is the administrative part and the other part is the blue collar employees. With the help of an LMX program we can build a communication between them where we can build a psychological capital among the blue collar employees. Administrative bodies of an organization often try to come up with various change related strategies. Blue collar employees often denounce them. Most of the companies think that they need a change management team to handle this situation, they employee knowledge management tactics and try to preserve the tacit knowledge of an organization during the process of the change.
A brief literature review
However, they forget that tacit knowledge is only a form of knowledge; it is not a psychological capital for the organization. We started this section with the example of Ford Motors. Let’s figure out the difference between the tacit knowledge and psychological capital. Tacit knowledge has the capacity to resolve the problem caused by a “Known devil” or “known situation.” Psychological capital is the next step in the evolution of tacit knowledge. This is a condition where the administration can support a blue-collar employee to procure the tacit knowledge for the current environments and foresee a few possibilities in the future. Most of the disaster management programs work on the same example; these organizations procure their tacit knowledge into psychological capital and allow different generations or the new generation of the employees to evolve a program for the future needs that may occur.
PsyCap tests and LMX programs can reduce the impurities and inexactness of an existing psychological capital pool. For instance, we can take the example of the prejudices in the mind of a team related to the ethnicity of certain employees or a given sub-group. Sometimes this tacit knowledge related to a sub-group helps an authentic leader in handling certain issues with the help of the psychological capital build by the previous leaders.
The culture of feedback and reinforced feedback can form the crux of the reforms in an organization. The culture of the feedback builds the Psychological capital of an organization and creates a balance among the groups based on ethnicity and cadres. It also helps the leaders in defining the role of each individual working in the system. It also helps them in the creation of the sustainable means of the employee performance evaluation (Munyaka, 2011).
Many global organizations are also taking the support of psychological capital and LMX exercise in handling the global workforce. Here we need to understand two very important factors. First, the duration of the programs conducted by the organizations is shrinking. They are building the teams for the projects and dismantling them once the project is over. It means the gestation periods are relatively low and the stakes are high (Chen, 2017). Psychological capital gained from the previous experiences can be utilized in this case with the help of the LMX exercise. Think about a company dealing in sophisticated defense weapons, on most of the occasions they go for one time deals with various customers in the international market. Their contract attracts a knowledge transfer program after regular intervals. The psychological capital build by a company can be utilized for training purposes. It can help the experts in filling the cultural gaps that exist in an organization. In the absence of a psychological capital, an LMX exercise may fail in mediating the problems between an authentic leader and a problematic employee (Zafar, 2017).
Under the new theories of organizational behavior, most of the experts are recommending to add another chapter. This chapter is about the utilization of the EQ of an employee for the purpose of the enhancement of the performance. The industries of the future will be heavily dependent on the robotic arms. The decision-making mechanism will take the support of the big data based calculations. Now, do we really need human intelligence in these conditions, at maximum levels, we may require a set of tacit knowledge to oversight the results of the technical calculations (Chen, 2017).
Almost two decades ago the concept of the EQ came into the job market. It was the time when STEM-based industries were planning to take a leap and trying to add the concept of the service in various products and offerings. EQ or the emotional quotient of an employee is important because it allows him to interact with humans and makes him a team player. When we check the roles of an Authentic leader to correct the mindsets of an employee with the help of an LMX program then we find that emotions act as a key component in the process. Logic defies change, emotions help an individual in accepting the change. Apart from it, in the end, we are dealing with humans and human behavior is imperfect in many ways. Emotions play the role of the leveler to match this imperfection, for instance, the emotion of mercy allows us to forgive someone who has done something wrong. Machines don’t understand emotions and this is why they can only react with extreme situations.
The process of an LMX program often forces a person to come out of his comfort zone and explore a new territory on a psychological level. The positive emotions and the emotion of the belongingness help them in performing better.
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