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How Employee Authenticity Shapes Work Attitudes and Behaviors: the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and the Moderating Role of Leader Authenticity

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Abstract

Taking a resource perspective, we examined the relationships between employee authenticity and work attitudes/behaviors, focusing especially on the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of leader authenticity. Data were collected with a three-wave survey administered to a sample of 588 employees from a biological manufacturing company in eastern China. Our results showed that employee authenticity can promote positive work attitudes/behaviors and inhibit negative ones among employees. The underlying mechanism is that employee authenticity can be converted into psychological capital, which is a positive psychological resource, and can further shape employee work attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, leader authenticity, as a job resource in the work environment, strengthens this conversion. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Funding

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Project ID: 71672186) granted to Yong Wang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Lili Song & Yong Wang

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Lili Song & Yong Wang

  3. Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yukun Zhao

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  1. Lili Song
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Correspondence to Yong Wang.

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Song, L., Wang, Y. & Zhao, Y. How Employee Authenticity Shapes Work Attitudes and Behaviors: the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and the Moderating Role of Leader Authenticity. J Bus Psychol 36, 1125–1136 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-020-09725-0

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