Leadership Research Summary:
- The effect of leader psychological need fulfilment on subordinates is discussed in this article. Researchers examined how leader psychological need fulfillment trickles down to employee psychological need satisfaction using the self-determination theory (SDT) and leader-member exchange (LMX) theories.
- Results from 1036 leader-employee pairs using a multi-actor, multi-level design show that employee-rated LMX mediates the influence of the fulfilment of the leader’s psychological needs.
- Leader competency is the primary psychological requirement behind this connection, according to other evaluations of leader psychological needs. Additionally, researchers discovered an unexpectedly negative correlation between the satisfaction of employee competence needs and the satisfaction of leader autonomy needs.
- This study further demonstrates the significance of both (1) leaders’ satisfaction of their psychological needs and (2) employees’ views of the quality of the connection for employees’ satisfaction of their psychological needs.
Leaderships Research Findings:
- The findings suggest that both leaders and workers care about a leader’s ability to satisfy their psychological needs. As a result, facilitating psychological need fulfilment is a duty shared by leaders and the companies they manage. According to the findings, businesses should not only create procedures and policies that are specifically aimed at assisting individuals who are at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy succeed, but also for their leaders, as this will naturally have a cascading effect across the company.
- Generally speaking, organizations should concentrate on enhancing leaders’ competence (e.g., through more education or mentoring programs) and relatedness (e.g., through more casual gatherings or activities), as this will improve leaders’ well-being and performance and trickle down to their staff as well (Deci and Ryan, 2000).
- Researchers discovered that the only requirement that directly affected workers was leader competency, proving that firms should place a larger priority on leaders’ perceptions of their effectiveness on the job. Organizations should take note of the possible adverse consequences of leader autonomy on staff competency in light of the results. Even when given the authority necessary to satisfy their desire for autonomy, leaders must nonetheless ensure that their staff members feel competent and have access to all the training and assistance they may require. Additionally, leaders may want to concentrate on enhancing the quality of their interactions with their staff, for example, by expanding opportunities for (informal) constructive dialogue.
- The study also highlights how crucial it is for leaders to take care of themselves and keep track of their psychological needs: Do they still feel linked (that is, have their needs for relatedness been met)? Are there any areas where they feel uneasy that they might address to satisfy their desire for competence?
- In order for leaders to succeed, self-care and self-development have long been encouraged in management texts (Latham, 2018). According to the research’s findings, this trickles down and is crucial for how employees view the quality of LMX, how their psychological needs are met, and ultimately how successful they are.