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The post-COVID-19 era is characterised in the professional field by a deterioration in the psychological health of employees and by “The Great Resignation”. These phenomena require managers to rethink both organisational and HR strategies to protect their workers’ health, to retain them in their job and, in fine, to ensure the sustainability of the organisation. However, studies have demonstrated that high performance work systems (HPWS), which are currently the dominant approach in human resource management, are related to an intensification of work and consequently a deterioration of employees’ health (conflicting outcomes perspective). At the same time, workers’ well-being has been shown to be associated with numerous organisational outcomes, such as individual performance. However, relatively few articles have investigated win–win organisational practices or programmes that promote the well-being and consequently performance of workers. These include virtuous organisational practices (VOPs), which specifically aim to enhance employees’ well-being, considered not as a means to an end, but as an end in itself (mutual gains perspective). This paper aims to develop the general hypothesis that VOPs could increase employees’ performance by protecting their health and thus offer an alternative to HPWS.

We review relevant current research on psychological well-being and work performance and present innovative systems of organisational practices such as VOPs that create psychologically healthy workplaces and enhance workers’ optimal functioning (well-being and performance).

Based on theoretical arguments and empirical studies, we hypothesise that alternative practices such as VOPs can increase employees’ performance while protecting their health and encouraging them to stay in the organisation.

After this review, we discuss future avenues for research to encourage the scientific community to test this hypothesis.

Finally, we make a number of specific recommendations about how to (1) appraise, design and implement VOPs, (2) enhance organisational communication and managerial adherence to VOPs, and (3) train managers in R.I.G.H.T leadership behaviours.

Presentation of an original approach in this research field: the VOPs.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between a positive leadership style [i.e. authentic leadership (AL)] and nurses’ psychological health (i.e. nurses’ flourishing and satisfaction with work–family balance), including psychological capital (PsyCap) as a mediational variable.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a self-report questionnaire including 1,076 nurses from public and private hospitals in France.

Structural equation modeling results revealed that AL is related to nurses’ flourishing and satisfaction with work–family balance and that PsyCap acted as a partial mediator between this leadership style and positive outcomes.

This research indicated that hospitals can enhance nurses’ psychological health not only in their work but also in their lives in general by improving leaders’ authentic management style and developing PsyCap (e.g. staffing, training and development).

An original feature of this paper concerns its focus on the mediating role of PsyCap in the relationship between AL and these positive outcomes. Moreover, this study underlined the influence of leadership style on nurses’ psychological health beyond occupational health. The research makes a valuable contribution to the existing AL literature by establishing a new explanatory model of AL and nurses’ psychological health in the French context. It also highlights the interest in developing this leadership style in health-care settings.