The DevelopMENT OF Authentic Leadership and Positive psychological capital: The case of Triglav insurance company
1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTHENTIC
LEADERSHIP AND POSITIVE
PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL: THE CASE OF
TRIGLAV INSURANCE COMPANY, THE
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
MASTER’S THESIS
Author: Zage Filipovski
Mentor: doc. Dr. Sandra Penger
3. The basic aim of the thesis is:
• to define the key constructs of Authentic Leadership (AL)
and Positive Psychological Capital (PPC);
• to explore the links between the two;
• to validate these theoretical findings with practical research
in a company;
• to analyze, examine and present the existing state of AL
and PPC of the case study subject Triglav Insurance
Company and to offer concrete recommendations as to
how to increase the PPC by fostering AL of the leaders and
followers.
4. Components of Authentic Leadership
o Positive psychological capital a fundamental asset of
authentic leadership considered a unique and vital
competitive advantage for contemporary businesses.
o The positive moral perspective: system of fundamental
beliefs and values.
o Self - awareness: being aware of own personal and
professional characteristics, strengths and weaknesses
(feelings, professional values and motives).
o Self - regulation: consists of self-control..
o Balanced - processing: objective decision making by taking
into consideration different and all relevant data and views.
o Relational transparency: openly sharing information.
5. Components of Positive Psychological
Capital
o Confidence (self-efficacy): people believe in their
capabilities.
o Hope: will to succeed; ability of a person to identify, clarify,
and follow different possible ways to success
o Optimism: expect good things to happen; expect the best
outcome; believe to be able to deal with most of the
situations in the best possible way.
o Resilience: ability to “bounce back”, to recover from
negative or positive changes; adaptability, flexibility to
significant change, the ability to adapt to new circumstances,
risk or adversity.
7. Research questions:
R 1: Does the authenticity of the leader correspond
to the existing level of PPC in the company?
R 2: Does the authenticity of the leaders influence
the development of PPC in a company?
R 3: Are the instruments for measuring AL and
PPC adaptive and applicable to Macedonian
realm and to what extent?
10. Average Values of the Survey Results
per Each Department
PPC Standard
deviation
AL of the
leader
Standard
deviation
AL self-evaluati
on
Standard
deviation
Sales 3.74 0.63 4.00 0.30 4.37 0.38
Damages 3.42 0.75 3.56 0.27 4.29 0.44
Other 3.51 0.49 3.52 0.26 4.14 0.43
Total 3.57 0.55 3.67 0.23 4.22 0.37
11. Correlation Coefficient (R) of the Results of
the Three Survey Questionnaires
1. PPC / AL of the
Leader
2. PPC / AL self
-evaluation
3. AL Self-evaluation
/ AL of
the Leader
0.94 0.55 0.79
13. Conclusions
1. The researchers in the field agree that AL is a continuous
functional process which primarily influences the creation
and maintenance of PPC as well as building a system of
values and integrity, providing trust, hope, optimism,
flexibility, sincerity, and honesty of managers as leaders.
2. Such performance on the part of leaders influences the
relationships, attitudes and behaviours of employees.
They develop ethical responsibility and self-regulation,
while also developing their followers as authentic leaders,
fostering positive self-development by identifying people’s
talents and helping them build these talents into strengths.
14. Conclusions
3. Fourthly, all of the abovementioned functional elements will
motivate employees to perform beyond expectations.
They will deliver improved results, providing unique
customized services and products and creating value by
doing things differently from the company’s rivals.
4. All these psychological states, correlated with authentic
leadership, contribute to achieving above-average
performance over a longer period of time. Such veritable
sustained performance creates competitive advantage that
cannot be duplicated by others and results in creating
longstanding values for shareholders. Luthans, Youseeff
and Avollio (2007) and Luthans et al. (2004)
15. Advice for Triglav Insurance Company
The company can invest in the development of PPC by the
following actions:
• providing positive feedback (enhances confidence);
• fostering participatory planning considering suggestions
from the front-line staff;
• empowering and delegating;
• undertaking regular reviews and constantly exploring
alternative courses of action (enhancing hope);
• celebrating positive achievements, even including small
successes and accomplishments (builds optimism);
• while enhancing resilience probably requires slightly more
complex interventions to enhance organizational learning.