How do life goals affect psychological well-being? A decade of research on positive psychology suggests well-being (or ill-being) is related to our aspirations, what we seek from life. People mainly pursuing wealth, fame, or image are not as psychologically healthy as those pursuing relationships, personal growth, becoming physically more healthy, or contributing to their communities.

Maree Roche (Waikato Institute of Technology) and Jarrod Haar (University of Waikato) discussed this literature in a Leadership & Organizational Development Journal article in 2013. Here are some insights from their review:

• A leader’s aspirations can “enhance or detract from leader development” and affect ability to influence others (p. 515).
• Positive leaders are sustained by aspirations that facilitate well-being.
• Leaders reaching higher levels often become “more outwardly successful” but have less well-being.
• Intrinsic aspirations (relationships, health, community, growth) probably are related more strongly to need satisfactions than extrinsic aspirations.
• Strong extrinsic aspirations (wealth, fame, image) are related to lower self-esteem, quality of relationships, life satisfaction and “greater depression, stress, anxiety” and prejudice” (p. 517).

Roche and Haar wondered about the relationship between a leader’s aspirations and burnout, that is emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Their literature review indicated:

• Leader burnout negatively influences employees resulting in lower organizational performance.
• Emotional exhaustion has been linked to lower job satisfaction, decreased job performance, and higher turnover.
• Cynicism, that is “feelings of frustration . . . disillusionment . . . negative feelings toward and distrust of a person, group  . . . or institution,” have been linked to feelings of unfairness, distrust, lowered commitment, and “decreased job/life satisfaction” (p. 519).

Using a two-stage survey of almost 400 leaders in 250 companies in New Zealand, Roche and Haar studied this relationship and found:

• “Extrinsic aspirations were significantly and positively correlated with job burnout” (p. 515).
• “Intrinsic aspirations were significantly and negatively correlated” with job burnout (p. 515).
• “The nature of life aspirations . . . can influence the well-being of people at work” (p. 524).

My take-aways:

1.  It is important for leaders to know themselves, to reflect not only on what they want their organizations to achieve but also what they want to achieve personally. Although Roche et al. do not use the term, I see this as a question of motivation. Are we motivated mostly internally by intrinsic rewards (meaningful work, good relationships, service to others) or externally by extrinsic rewards (e.g., compensation, fame, others’ opinions of us)? If you have been in the workplace for a while, you have probably seen leaders who were perceived one way or the other by employees.

2. Do you know your aspirations? Some people go through life without goals or serious thought to what they want out of life. Others set goals and strive to achieve. Some of these goals are extrinsic; some, intrinsic. Most of us probably have intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations. Perhaps what is important is how these aspirations play out in our day-to-day interactions, how they affect our decisions, our relationship with others.

3. The great psychologist Joseph Rychlak would not have found these findings difficult to understand. We come at life and give it meaning. Our aspirations affect how we come at life.

4.  As much as I admire this study, I think it only hints at a potential goldmine of programmatic research. As the authors suggested, the results may be different in collectivistic societies such as in East Asia. Likewise, I think it is important to note that leaders in this study were defined as in many leader studies, basically managers in leadership positions. My guess is that authentic and servant leaders would be high on intrinsic aspirations.

Roche, M., & Haar, J. M. (2013). Leaders life aspirations and job burnout: a self-determination theory approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 34(6), 515-531.    

© John Ballard, PhD,  2014. All rights reserved.

Does the age of a leader affect our perceptions of that leader’s effectiveness? Are there differences in how we view older leaders versus younger leaders?  Age and leadership is a subject not often surfaced except occasionally around U.S. presidential elections. To consider age in personnel actions is usually discriminatory. But how do we, admittedly or not, think about leaders and age?

This was the question posed by Spisak, Grabo, Arvey, and van Vugt published in The Leadership Quarterly. They discussed exploration and exploitation as functions of leadership that may be seen as age-related. Groups need both strategies.

• Exploration strategies encourage “risk-taking and innovation to remain adaptive and competitive in changing environments” (p. 806). 
• Exploitation strategies “create stability and minimize negative costs associated with uncertainty by refinement and execution of preexisting systems” (p. 806). 

The authors argued that groups need both. Exploration requires searching the dynamics of the environment whereas exploitation is about stability and finding best practices.

In three very interesting experiments, the researchers examined preferences for leadership in different business-related situations. The participants were undergraduates at VU University Amsterdam. Participants were given scenarios and shown faces of older and younger people. In two of the experiments researchers used software to morph young faces to older faces.  Spisak et al. designed each experiment to assess preferences for change leadership versus stability as associated with older and younger faces. 

Across all three experiments the results supported their hypothesis: 

• “Younger leadership is preferred when followers are looking for a leader in times of exploratory change” (p. 812).
•   “When followers are focused on the need for stable exploitation. they look to older leaders.” (p. 812).

My take-aways:

1.  Spisak et al. used an evolutionary perspective to suggest human groups have developed these preferences from our experiences over history – a preference for youth when new opportunities and exploration are needed, a preference for older leadership when things are going well and incremental change is fine. The authors argued these are not stereotypes.

2.  Regardless of theoretical orientation, their results point to possible biases in how we think about leaders, both on the large stage and in organizations. Do we really prefer younger leaders where change is imperative? Are we inclined toward older workers where things are going well and change is not imperative? Spisak et al.’s participants (university undergraduates) may limit how much we can conclude from their report. Even so they raise interesting questions about how we may view  age and leadership in different situations. 


Spisak, B. R., Grabo, A. E., Arvey, R. D., & van Vugt, M. (2014). The age of exploration and exploitation: Younger-looking leaders endorsed for change and older-looking leaders endorsed for stability. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(5), 805-816.

Image of "Beard Face" by Ben Pollard. URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ben_pollard/2096491305/
Used with permission. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

© John Ballard, PhD,  2016. All rights reserved.
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Healthy, wealthy, wise?  Is the tendency to save for retirement related to a tendency to improve one’s health?  If I save more for retirement through my 401(k), am I more likely to respond actively and positively to news of negative health issues? In a study reported recently in Psychological Science, Tim Gubler and Lamar Pierce examined this question and its underlying mechanisms.

Gubler and Pierce noted that prior research has indicated that some people seek immediate gratification, immediate consumption, and forego planning for the future. Others save. We know this, that some people think short term; others, long term. These “time preferences” affect our activities, such as the risks we take. Gubler and Pierce wondered if people who saved for retirement and those who actively addressing negative health feedback had a common time orientation. There are potential implications here for organizational planning and leadership.

They studied several hundred workers from 2010 to 2012. About 75% of the employees contributed to their 401(k). Differences in annual company health screenings provided the data on changes in health. Gubler and Pierce found:

• “retirement savings and health-improvement behaviors were highly correlated” (p. 1823).
  
• When given information indicating a need for more healthy behaviors, individuals who were 401(k) contributors improved their health significantly more than similar individuals who were not 401(k) contributors. 
  
• “psychological factors that are linked to retirement planning also predict health-improvement behaviors” (p. 1828).
  
• The number of sick days “was dramatically lower for contributors than noncontributors” (p. 1827)
  

My take-aways:

1.  My short review of Gubler and Pierce’s study does not do it justice. The study is highly sophisticated with appropriate statistical analyses and consideration of a variety of factors that could affect the results, such as conscientiousness. However, I think the implications for organizations, which they did not discuss, are significant.

2.  The study clearly demonstrated that people who participate in their organizations savings plans "up their game" when faced with a need to improve health-related behaviors. This results of this study would suggest, all things being equal, that organizations with higher voluntary contributions to 401(k) plans should be healthier. Implication: Leaders should strongly encourage participation to company savings plans. 

3.  Another implication: The advantage of organizationally sponsored biometric screenings as part of an organization’s wellness program. But for the annual blood tests, employees may not have been aware of the need to change certain behaviors. In this study the health data was provided directly to the employees. The company only received the employee's health information if the employee so authorized.

4.  Company benefits such as retirement savings plans and wellness programs benefit individuals but also potentially benefit organizations. This study suggested people who contribute to their retirement plans tend toward becoming healthier and have fewer sick days.

Gubler, T., & Pierce, L. (2014). Healthy, wealthy, and wise: Retirement planning predicts employee health improvements. Psychological Science, 25(9), 1822-1830.

"Evening No. 18". © John Ballard, 2014.

How happy are you?  Are happiness and job satisfaction the same? Should organizations be concerned about the overall happiness of their employees?

In October 2014 I attended the meeting of the Midwest Academy of Management in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A highlight was the opportunity to hear Fred Luthans, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, talk about psychological capital and its importance to organizations.

Psychological capital is not the same as human capital (what you know) or social capital (who you know).  Psychological capital is related to individuals being positive about work and life. This mindset grows from hope (having a will and a way), efficacy (confidence), resiliency (ability to bounce back), and optimism (positive outlook). Luthans’ work and others have shown that psychological capital is moderately correlated with increased performance (r = . 3), reduced turnover (r = -.28), and job satisfaction (r = .54).

Luthans noted that mindfulness and positivity are antecedents of psychological capital.  He gave several examples of the effects of mindfulness:

• Hotel maids who thought of their jobs as aerobic activity were more productive than those who did not.
• Orchestra members who were given the opportunity to “do something just a little different” in their playing were less bored, more engaged.
• 80 year-olds living in retro living conditions (more like when they were young) improved physiologically. 

Can we affect our own happiness? Luthans discussed Lyubomirsky’s model which suggests our happiness is 50% genetically determined (in our nature), 10% situational, but 40% intentional.

My take-aways:

1. I am a great admirer of Fred Luthans and his contributions to our understanding of managers and life in the workplace. Throughout his career he has applied research skills to advance our knowledge on significant issues. His work on psychological capital and its importance in organizations is typical. In an age when so few employees are truly engaged in the workplace, he goes to the heart of the matter – intentionality.

2. The great psychologist Joseph Rychlak would have followed this research with much interest. In many ways the current work on psychological capital, mindfulness, and positive psychology are consistent with Rychlak’s work (discussed here in several previous blogs). We come at life and give it meaning. We can choose to change how we come at life, how we see our jobs, what our daily activities mean to us. We are not passively written on by our environment. We can reframe and change our premises, our predications, and give different meanings to our days.

3.  Leaders should become familiar with this research. It is becoming clear that psychological capitol is related to the bottomline – and to the health and happiness of those we serve through our leadership.

Luthans, F. (October 4, 2014). Up, up, and away with positive psychological capital. Presented at the meeting of the Midwest Academy of Management in Minneapolis, MN.

Luthans, F. ; Avolio, B. J.; Avey, J. B.; and Norman, S. M. (2007).  Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60, 541-572

"Midwest Sunset". © John Ballard, 2014.