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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the perceived authentic leadership of supervisors and employees’ core self-evaluations on their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and to examine the role of psychological empowerment as a partial mediator of those relationships.

A cross-sectional survey was used to obtain individual perceptions from employees working in one of the biggest companies in Korea. Data from 374 samples was analyzed. Construct validity of each measurement model is examined using confirmatory factor analysis and the hypothesized structural model is tested by structural equation modeling.

The authors found that perceived authentic leadership, core self-evaluation, and employees’ psychological empowerment had significant impact on employees’ OCB, accounting for 58 percent of the variance in OCB. In addition, 54 percent of the variance in psychological empowerment was explained by authentic leadership and core self-evaluations, partially mediating the relationship between authentic leadership and OCB and the relationship between core self-evaluations and OCB.

Positivity is instrumental in driving intrinsic motivation for work and voluntary devotion to colleagues and organizations. This study contributed to the emerging research branch of management and organizational psychology such as positive organization scholarship and positive organizational behavior by exploring the relationship among the relevant constructs. More specifically, the authors found that positive contextual factor (i.e. authentic leadership), positive personality factor (i.e. core self-evaluations), and positive work experience (i.e. psychological empowerment) do have positive influence on employees’ extra-role performance (i.e. OCB).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of learning organization culture (LOC), learning goal orientation (LGO) and psychological empowerment (PsyEmp) on employee engagement, focusing on the mediating role of each dimension of PsyEmp (meaning, competence, self-determination and impact).

Individual perceptions of 329 employees in 9 South Korean for-profit companies were obtained by a cross-sectional survey. Construct validity of each measurement model was examined using confirmatory factor analysis, and the hypothesized structural model was tested by structural equation modeling. Bootstrap analyses were used for testing mediation effects of PsyEmp.

The authors found that PsyEmp had a significant effect on job engagement, and that LOC and LGO significantly predicted the level of PsyEmp and engagement. The four dimensions of PsyEmp partially mediated the relationship between the two predictors (i.e. LOC and LGO) and job engagement. LGO had a stronger effect than LOC on both PsyEmp and job engagement.

Employees who are high in LGO and perceive that an organization provides opportunities for continuous learning with supportive leadership are more likely to experience improved meaning in their work, competence in their knowledge and skills, and foster self-determination with respect to their personal impact on their work and organization. These important facets of PsyEmp that promote employee engagement should be considered by human resource and OD professionals when recommending workplace changes to improve organizational effectiveness and sustainability.

This study complements the trend to use employee engagement as a proxy for understanding both individual and organizational performance by investigating the relationships among LOC, goal orientation, empowerment and engagement.

Because of the changing psychological contract between employers and employees over time, the primary responsibility for career development has shifted from organizations to employees. As the role of individuals in career development has become important, personal growth initiative (PGI), individuals' positive and proactive stance toward change and continuous self-improvement, can be a pivotal construct in the fields of human resources (HR), organizational behavior (OB) and career management. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of person–organization fit (POF), authentic leadership and work empowerment on PGI.

Data were collected from 235 employees of a leading telecommunication company in South Korea. Most respondents were highly educated male managers in their 30s and 40s. With an overall confirmatory factor analysis, the four-factor measurement model indicated a good fit to the data. The relationships between variables and the relative importance of each independent variables were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, along with a bootstrapping to examine the mediation effect of work empowerment.

Based on a moderated mediation model, this study examined the integrative effects of POF, authentic leadership and work empowerment on PGI. The authors found that employees demonstrated a high level of PGI when they perceived themselves fit with the organization and when they were empowered in their work. While the direct effect of authentic leadership was non-significant, supportive, transparent and ethical leadership behavior significantly moderated the relationship between POF and PGI. Lastly, based on a bootstrap analysis, this study found that work empowerment partially mediated the relationship between POF and PGI.

This empirical study contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of HR, OB and career management. This study introduced a relatively less explored construct, PGI, using data from knowledge workers in South Korea. The authors integrated diverse research streams such as person–environment fit, leadership and engagement research. Lastly, this was the first study that investigated the effects of contextual factors on PGI in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of psychological capital (PsyCap) on work engagement. It also investigated the role of work empowerment as a mediator and authentic leadership as a moderator.

Data were collected from 599 knowledge workers in a Korean conglomerate. For statistical analysis, the authors conducted the confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and correlation analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses.

The results suggest that employees were highly engaged when they had higher PsyCap. Work empowerment partially mediated the relationship between PsyCap and work engagement. While authentic leadership was found to moderate the relationship between PsyCap and work empowerment, the proposed moderation effect of authentic leadership on the relationship between PsyCap and work engagement turned out to be non-significant.

The sample of this study was focused on knowledge workers in the Korean private sector who are mostly male junior or middle managers. This empirical study relied on a cross-sectional survey method. As the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, however, common method variance was found not to be of great concern.

HR and OD practitioners can help employees develop more positive attitudes about their work. It is also important to improve employees’ empowerment and engagement level not only by helping employees enhance the level of PsyCap, but also by job enrichment and by developing authentic and supportive leadership.

The contributions of this study to theory lie in the fact that it: took an integrative approach encompassing both personal and contextual factors; introduced relatively new constructs in empowerment and engagement research: PsyCap and authentic leadership; was an international study, based on Korean cultural context.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity and the mediating roles of work engagement and knowledge sharing in this relationship.

Using the results of a survey of 302 knowledge workers from a leading telecommunications company in South Korea, the relationships among the variables empowering leadership, work engagement and knowledge sharing on employee creativity were analyzed using conducted confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. This study conducted bootstrap analyses to test the mediating effects.

Empowering leadership was positively and significantly associated with work engagement and knowledge sharing. Work engagement was significantly related to knowledge sharing and employee creativity. In turn, knowledge sharing was significantly associated with employee creativity. The direct effect of empowering leadership on employee creativity was nonsignificant, but this study found a significant indirect effect of empowering leadership on employee creativity via the significant mediating roles of work engagement and knowledge sharing.

This study introduced empowering leadership that may work for knowledge workers who create new ideas by analyzing data from the knowledge workers’ perceptions of their leaders in the workplace. The intuitive linkage between work engagement and knowledge sharing was empirically verified in this study. This study’s findings and implications provide direction for knowledge workers and how their managers should support employees’ work environment and activities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of empowering leadership on employees’ psychological well-being (PWB) and job engagement. This study also examines the mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in these relationships.

The study draws on survey data (n=285) from employees in eight large-sized firms in South Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the convergent validity of the construct measures. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data.

The authors found that empowering leadership influenced job engagement both directly and indirectly through PsyCap. Employees’ PsyCap fully mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ PWB, while partially mediating the relationship between empowering leadership and job engagement.

This is the first empirical study to examine the effects of empowering leadership behaviors of leaders on both PWB and PsyCap, which are positive psychological resources of employees. The study has also provided empirical evidence for the importance of PsyCap, which plays a positive role in the ability of employees to manage their overall feelings in achievement situations and in employees’ engagement in the workplace.

Employee happiness or well-being is an emerging topic in management as well as in psychology. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological capital (PsyCap) on happiness in employees’ work (i.e. work engagement), careers (i.e. career satisfaction), and lives (i.e. subjective well-being (SWB)).

Data were collected from 550 employees in a conglomerate in South Korea. For statistical analysis, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling analyses.

Employees were highly engaged in their work, satisfied with their careers, and felt a greater sense of well-being in their lives when they had higher POS and PsyCap. Work engagement fully mediated the relationship between PsyCap and career satisfaction. POS had an indirect effect on SWB through career satisfaction. With regards to the relationships among the three outcome variables, career satisfaction turned out to fully mediate the relationship between work engagement and SWB. In addition, the direct effect of PsyCap on SWB was also found to be significant.

This study focused on knowledge workers in South Korean for-profit firms. The participants were mostly male, junior or middle managers. Using a cross-sectional survey method, this empirical study leaves room for speculation about the causality among the variables. As the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicate, however, common method variance was found to not be of great concern.

The mission of human resources (HR) and organization development (OD) professionals in organizations is to improve individual and organizational performance and to enhance employees’ well-being. HR/OD professionals can enhance employees’ happiness not only in their work and careers but also in their lives by improving POS (e.g. growth opportunity, performance management, and compensation system) and developing PsyCap (e.g. staffing, training, and development, etc.).

This study linked the emerging constructs in positive psychology in general, in HR/OB in particular. To date, no study has empirically investigated the effects of PsyCap and POS on the three workplace happiness constructs: work engagement, career satisfaction, and SWB. This is the first study that found the relationship between POS and PsyCap. Last, while South Koreans are more collectivistic and less satisfied with their lives than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average, the respondents in this study, working for highly reputable firms, perceived high level of happiness in their work and career, and eventually in their lives. Thus, organizational features had a stronger effect on workplace happiness than national culture.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of developmental opportunities and perceived pay equity-and paternalistic leadership on affective organizational commitment and the moderating role of paternalistic leadership at the team level in a Korean context.

Hierarchical linear modeling with a two-level design was used to analyze data collected from 844 employees and 59 work teams.

The study identified that developmental opportunities and perceived pay equity were significantly associated with affective organizational commitment. However, paternalistic leadership was not significantly related to affective organizational commitment. The results also showed that the moderation effect of paternalistic leadership on the relationship between pay equity and organizational commitment was non-significant, and paternalistic leadership moderated the relationship between developmental opportunities and organizational commitment. In particular, the relationship of developmental opportunities with organizational commitment became weaker when the supervisor’s paternalistic leadership was stronger.

The results of this study supported the applicability of organizational support theory and previous empirical studies supporting the relationships between human resource (HR) practices and commitment, particularly in the Korean cultural context. The results have several practical implications for employers, mangers and HR practitioners in an East Asian cultural context.

This study extends the body of knowledge in leadership research by investigating the influences of two key factors of HR practices and a Confucianism-based indigenous leadership theory on organizational commitment. More importantly, the results can guide future cross-national or cross-organizational studies exploring the relationships among leadership, organizational culture and organizational effectiveness. This study also offers clearer empirical evidence for why and how developmental opportunities and perceived pay equity need to be enhanced in an East Asian cultural context.

In a knowledge-based economy, employees’ perception of psychological safety in their wok unit is critical for group conflict. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of psychological safety between the predictors (i.e. organizational trust and empowering leadership) and the outcome variable, group conflict.

Data was drawn from 633 employees from a global automobile company headquartered in South Korea. Construct validity of the measurement model was examined using a confirmatory factor analysis. The hypothesized model was tested by a structural equation modeling and the bootstrap analysis.

Organizational trust and empowering leadership accounted for 68% of the variance in employees’ psychological safety. The three antecedents (i.e. organizational trust, empowering leadership and psychological safety) explained 20% of the variance in group conflicts. Psychological safety significantly and fully mediated the relationship between organizational trust and group conflict and the relationship between empowering leadership and group conflict.

Human resources and organization development professionals can help employees feel more psychologically safe in an organization by developing empowering leaders and making more trustworthy organizational culture. When employees perceive a high level of psychological safety, they are likely to feel less conflict in their team.

This study examined the antecedents and consequences of psychological safety of knowledge workers in a non-Western cultural context. Psychological safety played a pivotal role as a mediator. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that empirically found the direct link between organizational trust and psychological safety and the relationship between empowerment leadership and psychological safety.

The purposes of the study are to examine the relationships between team emergent states (TES) (i.e. compelling direction, team identity and psychological safety) and team effectiveness outcomes (i.e. team performance, team satisfaction and growth experience), and investigate the mediating role of knowledge sharing and the moderating role of inclusive leadership in those relationships.

This study employed hierarchical multiple regression analysis and bootstrap analyses to test the hypotheses by using data from 73 teams in eight South Korean firms.

Psychological safety was found to be a significant TES for team effectiveness outcomes. Knowledge sharing mediated the relationship between TES and team effectiveness. Lastly, inclusive leadership positively moderated (1) team identity-knowledge sharing; (2) psychological safety-knowledge sharing; and (3) team identity-team performance relationships.

The authors’ findings suggest that managers cultivate a psychologically safe team climate and show inclusiveness to build successful teams. This study also emphasizes the importance of knowledge sharing to turn positive TES into team effectiveness.

From a comprehensive perspective, the findings show the detailed mechanism in which TES relate to team effectiveness mediated by knowledge sharing. In particular, the authors' endeavor further determines the different roles of inclusive leadership, as a boundary condition, in the mechanism.