Meta‐analysis of the impact of positive psychological capital on employee attitudes, behaviors, and performance
verifiedrich profile · Human Resource Development Quarterly · 2011
Avey, James B.; Reichard, Rebecca J.; Luthans, Fred; Mhatre, Ketan H.
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
psychological capital psycap → organizational citizenship behavior ocb
psychological capital psycap → organizational commitment
psychological capital psycap → turnover intention
psychological capital psycap → turnover intention
psychological capital psycap → overall job performance
psychological capital psycap → job satisfaction
psychological capital psycap → organizational citizenship behavior ocb
psychological capital psycap → organizational commitment
psychological capital psycap → job satisfaction
psychological capital psycap → job satisfaction
psychological capital psycap → task performance
psychological capital psycap → job satisfaction
psychological capital psycap → turnover intention
psychological capital psycap → organizational commitment
psychological capital psycap → turnover intention
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
psychological capital psycap correlates job satisfaction
psychological capital psycap correlates organizational commitment
psychological capital psycap correlates turnover intention
psychological capital psycap predicts job satisfaction
psychological capital psycap predicts organizational citizenship behavior ocb
psychological capital psycap predicts organizational commitment
psychological capital psycap predicts overall job performance
psychological capital psycap predicts task performance
psychological capital psycap predicts turnover intention
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Abstract The positive core construct of psychological capital (or simply PsyCap), consisting of the psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, has recently been demonstrated to be open to human resource development (HRD) and performance management. The research stream on PsyCap has now grown to the point that a quantitative summary analysis of its impact on employee attitudes, behaviors, and especially performance is needed. The present meta‐analysis included 51 independent samples (representing a total of N = 12,567 employees) that met the inclusion criteria. The results indicated the expected significant positive relationships between PsyCap and desirable employee attitudes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, psychological well‐being), desirable employee behaviors (citizenship), and multiple measures of performance (self, supervisor evaluations, and objective). There was also a significant negative relationship between PsyCap and undesirable employee attitudes (cynicism, turnover intentions, job stress, and anxiety) and undesirable employee behaviors (deviance). A sub‐analysis found no major differences between the types of performance measures used (i.e., between self, subjective, and objective). Finally, the analysis of moderators revealed the relationship between PsyCap and employee outcomes were strongest in studies conducted in the United States and in the service sector. These results provide a strong evidence‐based recommendation for the use of PsyCap in HRD and performance programs. Theoretical contributions, future research directions, and practical guidelines for HRD conclude the article. Gallup Polls in recent years suggest that Americans are pessimistic about incremental
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “…influence of PsyCap on workplace outcomes such as work satisfaction (e.g., [3, 4]), commitment [5], psychological well-being [4, 6, 7], organizational citizenship behavior [8, 9], and performance [3, 10, 11] has been fairly sufficient in the past years, as meta-analyses show (e.g., [12]).”
supports “Previous research indicates that psychological capital and work engagement are positively related to job performance 21,22,25,58,59 Building upon the theoretical underpinnings of Hypotheses 1 and 2, it is reasonable to postulate that the psychological capital of platform flexible employees exerts a…”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
supports “Previous research indicates that psychological capital and work engagement are positively related to job performance 21,22,25,58,59 Building upon the theoretical underpinnings of Hypotheses 1 and 2, it is reasonable to postulate that the psychological capital of platform flexible employees exerts a…”
supports “An exclusive resource of wide concern is psychological capital and job satisfaction linked to positive psychological resources: hope, optimism, efficacy and resilience, grouped in one higher-order factor (Luthans, et al., 2007; Avey, et al., 2011).”
supports “…influence of PsyCap on workplace outcomes such as work satisfaction (e.g., [3, 4]), commitment [5], psychological well-being [4, 6, 7], organizational citizenship behavior [8, 9], and performance [3, 10, 11] has been fairly sufficient in the past years, as meta-analyses show (e.g., [12]).”
supports “…influence of PsyCap on workplace outcomes such as work satisfaction (e.g., [3, 4]), commitment [5], psychological well-being [4, 6, 7], organizational citizenship behavior [8, 9], and performance [3, 10, 11] has been fairly sufficient in the past years, as meta-analyses show (e.g., [12]).”
supports “…influence of PsyCap on workplace outcomes such as work satisfaction (e.g., [3, 4]), commitment [5], psychological well-being [4, 6, 7], organizational citizenship behavior [8, 9], and performance [3, 10, 11] has been fairly sufficient in the past years, as meta-analyses show (e.g., [12]).”
supports “More specifically, psychological capital is related to positive attitudes such as confidence, satisfaction, and a sense of empowerment [47, 48], which can help ease depression and mitigate loss of emotional capacity.”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
supports “According to previous studies, psychological capital is positively associated with desirable employee attitudes like job satisfaction and organizational commitment(65) and negatively associated with undesirable employee attitudes like employee cynicism, turnover intentions, and employee stress and anxiety.(63,66,67) Thus, ideal employee attitudes are therefore crucial for both individual and organizational success.”
supports “Equally, positive psychological states linked to mental health (e.g., resilience and perceived self-efficacy) have been associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, citizenship behavior, and performance (Avey et al., 2011; Wu & Nguyen, 2019).”
supports “Previous research indicates that psychological capital and work engagement are positively related to job performance 21,22,25,58,59 Building upon the theoretical underpinnings of Hypotheses 1 and 2, it is reasonable to postulate that the psychological capital of platform flexible employees exerts a…”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
supports “…influence of PsyCap on workplace outcomes such as work satisfaction (e.g., [3, 4]), commitment [5], psychological well-being [4, 6, 7], organizational citizenship behavior [8, 9], and performance [3, 10, 11] has been fairly sufficient in the past years, as meta-analyses show (e.g., [12]).”
supports “Research has shown that psychological capital plays a crucial role in combating employee stress, turnover intentions, and job search behaviors (Avey et al., 2011; Roshanfekr, 2022).”
supports “…’ performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and voice behaviors but negatively associated with job burnout, turnover intention, and workplace deviance (e.g., Avey et al., 2011; Song et al., 2021).”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1186/s40359-023-01266-4
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- 10.1177/00332941231183614
- 10.24052/bmr/v12nu02/art-01
- 10.34190/ejkm.21.3.2986
- 10.52932/jfm.vi3.364
- 10.1186/s12960-024-00915-y
- 10.2147/prbm.s387287
- 10.1111/csp2.12918
- 10.29259/sijdeb.v8i4.359-382
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.