How and when do strengths work? The effect of strengths-based leadership on follower career satisfaction

Abstract

Purpose Drawing on conversation of resources theory, the present paper aimed to investigate the effect of strengths-based leadership on follower career satisfaction and the mediating role of follower strengths use as well as the moderating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship. Design/methodology/approach Research data were gathered at 3 time points with a sample of 210 participants working in various organizations in China. Structural equation model (SEM) was applied to examine the authors' hypotheses. Findings The results indicated that strengths-based leadership has a positive impact on follower career satisfaction and follower strengths use fully mediates the effect of strengths-based leadership on follower career satisfaction. More importantly, emotional exhaustion enhanced the direct relationship between strengths use and career satisfaction and the indirect association of strengths-based leadership with follower career satisfaction through follower strengths use. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of the present paper was the single source of research data. Originality/value The present paper advances strengths-based leadership theory and research and provides a new insight into cultivating employee career satisfaction.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 19 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.