LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 1 The relationship between Leadership, Orientation to Happiness and Work Motivation Estela Calderaro Pontinha Leite Universidade de Coimbra Home Tutors Prof. Dr. Leonor Pais Prof. Dr. Nuno Rebelo dos Santos Prof. Dr. Lisete Mónico Universidade de Coimbra Host Tutor Prof. Dr. Vicente Martinez-Tur Universitat de València LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 2 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 4 The relationship between Leadership, Orientation to Happiness and Work Motivation .... 5 Leadership ....................................................................................................................... 6 Work Motivation ........................................................................................................... 10 Orientation to Happiness............................................................................................... 14 Aim of the research and contribution of the study ........................................................ 18 Method .............................................................................................................................. 24 Participants .................................................................................................................... 24 Instruments .................................................................................................................... 26 Orientation to Happiness Scale (OtHS) .................................................................... 26 Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (MWMS) ............................................... 28 Empowering Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) ........................................................ 30 Toxic Leadership Scale (TLS) .................................................................................. 31 Procedures ..................................................................................................................... 32 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 33 Results ............................................................................................................................... 35 Creation of OTH profiles .............................................................................................. 37 Differences in MWMS between OTH profiles ............................................................. 40 MWMS predicted by Leadership .................................................................................. 42 LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 3 Hypotheses testing - Comparing Regression Coefficients ........................................ 50 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 51 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 57 Implications, Limitations, and Further Studies ............................................................. 58 References ......................................................................................................................... 62 Appendix A – Chronogram .............................................................................................. 78 Annex A – Questionnaire .................................................................................................. 79 LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 4 Abstract The goal of the present study is to analyze in which extent the effect of Toxic and Empowering Leadership on Work Motivation is significantly different between various profiles of Orientation to Happiness. According to the corresponding definitions, empowering leaders support their team, promote autonomy, self-direction and encourage self-management and toxic leaders bully and belittle their subordinates, impacting their enthusiasm, creativity, and autonomy. In other words, while empowering leaders address the autonomy and competence needs satisfaction, toxic leaders undermine competence, autonomy, and relatedness, the three basic needs underlying work motivation according to the Self-Determination Theory, the theoretical framework adopted by us in this study. Starting from the evidence that those leadership types influence, in general, work motivation of followers, this phenomenon will be more accurately described if we consider their orientation to happiness. Four questionnaires (Orientation to Happiness, Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale, Empowering Leadership Questionnaire, and Toxic Leadership Scale) were applied to a sample of 850 Portuguese workers. MANOVA, Cluster analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were performed. Results confirmed that Empowering Leadership is positively related to work motivation, Toxic Leadership is negatively related to work motivation, and those effects are different among orientation to happiness profiles (groups). Implications for future research and limitations of the research are also discussed. Keywords: Empowering Leadership; Engagement; Meaning; Orientation to Happiness; Pleasure; Toxic Leadership; Work Motivation. LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 5 The relationship between Leadership, Orientation to Happiness and Work Motivation Empowering leaders are characterized by several actions, as supporting their teams, modeling appropriate behaviors, providing social and emotional encouragement, and promoting self- directed goals (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014a; Bennis & Nanus, 1985; Lawler, 1986; Liden & Tewnsbury, 1995; Manz & Sims, 1987; Pelletier, 2010; Wu & Chen, 2015; Zhang & Zhou, 2014). There is also evidence of the impact of this form of leadership on employee work motivation (Salvador & dos Santos, 2018). Contrariwise, toxic leadership is defined as a maladjusted and malicious leadership (Schmidt, 2008; Whicker, 1996), where leaders have a destructive behavior and exhibit personal characteristics considered to be dysfunctional (Lipman- Blumen, 2005), negatively impacting enthusiasm, creativity, and autonomy in people with whom they work (Pelletier, 2010). It is expected that the impact of this form of leadership can be felt negatively in the work motivation of employees. This idea was previously confirmed by Salvador and dos Santos (2018). In the present study, work motivation will be approached in the perspective of Self-Determination Theory and, therefore, considering the motivational multidimensionality that evolves from amotivation to intrinsic motivation (Gagné & Deci, 2005; Gagné et al., 2015). It is expected that there is an impact of these two types of leadership on work motivation, as found by Salvador and dos Santos (2018) but that such impact can be more accurately described if we take into account personal characteristics or preferences of the workers. Specifically, we chose to include in our analysis the orientation to happiness (OTH), a construct that showed to distinguish individuals according to their preferences and visions on what happiness is (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005). We expect that the impact empowering and toxic leaderships have on work motivation will depend on the orientation to happiness LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 6 evidenced by the follower. Different orientations to happiness correspond to different preferences which means different things people value and pursue. Considering leadership under which people work is part of their working life related to what they do, perceive and expect when working, that leadership enables, prevents or undermines their pursuit of goals and happiness. Therefore, the idea that depending on the specific OTH people have the impact of leadership on work motivation is different sounds plausible. Moreover, the leadership types here approached are defined by the impact they have on subordinates, empowering or damaging them, which reinforces the argument that different OTH correspond to different impacts of leadership on work motivation. The OTH is understood here as an intra-individual construct, a preference determining how people pursuit happiness. It is composed of three dimensions: pleasure (related to the hedonistic tradition of pursuing a maximum of pleasure and a minimum of suffering), meaning (eudaimonia, carrying out meaningful activities and promoting self-development) and engagement (psychological state that accompanies highly engaging activities; Peterson et al., 2005). Leadership Leadership is a topic that has been studied for over 100 years. It has already been characterized “in terms of individual traits, leader behavior, interaction patterns, role relationships, follower perceptions, influence over followers, influence on task goals, and influence on organizational culture” (Yukl, 1989, p. 252). In addition, some perspectives approach leadership highlighting universal characteristics, traits, behaviors, or virtues while others focus on situational contingencies that require specific ways of performing the leadership role or specific traits that suit leadership function better. LEADERSHIP, WORK MOTIVATION, AND ORIENTATION TO HAPPINESS 7 Within the first type of approaches mentioned, in the past 20 years, new virtuous leadership theories emerged and were developed, such