Does it help to have an inspirational tutor?
The relationship between teacher psychological capital, student psychological
capital and study results, and the role of inspirational tutorship.
Master thesis Executive Programme in Management Studies Track: Leadership and Management Thesis Supervisor: Annebel de Hoogh January 22, 2016
Corine Kolvenbag
Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
-Anne Frank-
Statement of Originality
This document is written by Corine Kolvenbag who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.
PREFACE
With justifiable pride I hereby present my thesis, “Does it help to have an inspirational tutor? The relationship between teacher psychological capital, student psychological capital and study results, and the role of inspirational tutorship”. It has been written to fulfill the graduation requirements for the leadership and management track of the Executive Programme in Management Studies at the Amsterdam Business School. I was engaged in researching and writing this thesis from the initial stage of thinking about an interesting topic in June 2015, until producing this final version in January 2016.
From the first moment, I was very much interested and enthusiastic about my research topic. Initially, I did not think that it would be so much fun doing this research. In particular, I enjoyed the mixture of reading, writing, analyzing, and performing and organizing practical matters. It was a very valuable experience about how to conduct research.
I would never have started the programme without a little push from Fred Gaasendam, my colleague and former ICT Director at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). There was always an “excuse” as to why the timing never seemed perfect. Thanks Fred for giving me the right push at that crucial moment. Although most of the work is done by myself, I would never have reached this point without the important, and highly appreciated support of others. I could not think of a more inspirational thesis supervisor than Annebel de Hoogh. During every meeting you kept my motivation and enthusiasm high, especially because of your expertise and enthusiasm. You provided me with valuable feedback, and was always available and willing to help with queries. You were a successful role model for me. Thanks Annebel for your very pleasant guidance and support. The person at the TU/e who read and accepted my thesis proposal with open arms was Gerard van de Watering, Policy Officer at the Bachelor College. We worked out how to choose and form a good sample for my research questions, and thereafter you introduced me to the right people. You provided me with helpful feedback and helped me with my questions. Thank you Gerard for always being there. Without the willingness, time, and effort of Emiel van Berkum, responsible teacher of the calculus course, I would never have been able to access the calculus tutor and student respondents. I especially appreciate your openness and helpfulness. Thank you Emiel for giving me this possibility, and for your generous support. When one chooses to use paper and pencil to conduct a survey, it means a lot of manual data entry. Luckily, I had great help from my friend Tineke Bruijs. I cannot remember hearing you say “don’t know” as often as during those long and pleasant evenings. Thanks Tineke for being such a great friend. Finally I
want to thank my family who had to miss me during many occasions but were always supporting to me; my son Martijn, for whom I hopefully was and am a role model by inspiring him to understand that learning is fun. And of course my husband Mari, who also helped me with the data entry, putting together the survey envelopes (we almost looked like a mail-order firm), and more importantly, made sure that every second I wanted to spend on my study was possible. I know you took it for granted, but without you I never would have had this opportunity to fulfill a dream. Thank you so much.
Enjoy your reading! Corine Kolvenbag
CONTENT
ABSTRACT ...
INTRODUCTION ... 1
THEORY AND HYPOTHESES ... 2
Psychological capital ... 3 Hope ... 4 Self-efficacy ... 4 Resilience ... 5 Optimism ... 5 Core construct ... 6 State-like capital ... 7
Relationship leader psychological capital and follower psychological capital ... 8
Psychological capital and performance ... 10
Inspirational leadership ... 11
Relationship teacher student, LMX ... 13
METHODS ... 15
Sample and procedure ... 15
Measures ... 16
Independent and mediating variable: Psychological capital ... 17
Dependent variable: Study outcome ... 18
Moderating variables: Inspirational tutorship and LMX ... 19
Control variables ... 19 Validation of constructs ... 19 Data aggregation ... 20 RESULTS ... 20 Additional results ... 23 DISCUSSION ... 25 Managerial implications ... 27
Limitations and future research ... 28
REFERENCES ... 30
APPENDIX 1, Permission and original PCQ ... 38
APPENDIX 2, Guiding letter ... 47
APPENDIX 3, Questionnaire teacher ... 48
APPENDIX 4, Questionnaire student ... 50
ABSTRACT
In this study the link between teachers’ psychological capital and students’ psychological capital, and subsequent study results is examined. In addition, the moderating effects of inspirational leadership, and the relationship between teacher and student, on the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital are investigated. The context of this study is higher education. All 137 tutors and 2399 students involved in the calculus course at the Bachelor College at Eindhoven University of Technology are selected in the sample. Together they formed 300 tutor groups with an average of 8 students per tutor group. In the 7th week of the Calculus course, students and tutors were
asked to fill out a questionnaire on paper. The expected relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital is not confirmed in this study. A positive relationship between student psychological capital and study outcomes is supported. Students do not see inspirational tutorship and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) as different constructs. Therefore, results on LMX are left out the analyses. Although inspirational tutorship did not moderate the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital, an additional analysis to this study revealed inspirational tutorship as an antecedent of student psychological capital. To survive and prosper, universities need to take full advantage of their teachers’ and students’ potential, so that innovation, change, learning, performance, and competitiveness can be sustained. The results of this study suggest that it is worthwhile to invest in selecting and developing inspirational teachers, and in developing students’ psychological capital.
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INTRODUCTION
Organizations like universities nowadays operate in a turbulent environment. Knowledge and innovation are gaining importance in international economic relations. They have developed rapidly, becoming part of a global knowledge economy; national boundaries and geographical distances fade. Knowledge-intensive companies prefer to establish themselves in regions with great economic dynamism. They choose regions where high-quality universities and knowledge institutions are concentrated, where high-quality knowledge is available, and where governments strongly facilitate growth and are supportive (Heitor, 2015; Marginson, 2010; Robertson, 2005). In the long term, only top universities with a strong international position and reputation are of importance for establishment and act as a binding factor (Bercovitz & Fieldman, 2006; Tabish & Syed, 2015). The competition to attract students, scientists, funds, and partners grows stronger continually. Companies, students, and scientists are less tied to a specific location, and international networks of cooperating universities and businesses are emerging (Heitor, 2015). Meanwhile, in recent years several performance norms have been introduced in higher education, e.g. the so-called “bindend studieadvies”, and standard efficiency and performance goals concerning students. Student performance outcomes, like grades and pass rates, could be used to measure success. According to Bean (Bean, 1980), one of the reasons students drop out is because of grades, and a considerable part of their behavior can be explained by the students’ grade point average (Bean, 1985; Cabrera, Nora, & Castaneda, 1993). So to be effective in education in this turbulent international environment, it is worth investigating how certain factors may contribute to the grade point average to limit dropout and increase pass rates.
Psychological capital might be one of the factors that has an effect on study results. Psychological capital is an affective state consisting of four underlying personal resources: hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism (Luthans, Luthans, & Luthans, 2004; Luthans & Youssef, 2004). Although psychological capital is gaining wide attention, research on antecedents and outcomes of psychological capital is still relatively limited. Previous research in the business context shows that leaders’ psychological capital is positively related to followers’ psychological capital and performance (Avey, Reichard, Luthans, & Mhatre, 2011; Luthans, Avolio, Walumba, & Li, 2005; Walumba, Peterson, Avolio, & Hartnell, 2010). This implies that in an educational setting, the psychological capital of teachers, who are managers of the educational process, may have a positive influence on the students’ psychological capital and subsequent study performance. Research previously executed in a university context has linked
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students’ psychological capital to positive emotions and engagement (Ouweneel, Le Blanc, & Schaufeli, 2011; Siu, Cheng, & Lui, 2014). However, we still know little about the effects of teachers’ psychological capital on students’ psychological capital and study results. Moreover, research has little to say about possible moderating effects that may enhance or diminish the potential positive effects of leader psychological capital on follower psychological capital and subsequent results. Because of the current pressure on efficiency, performance, and study output, it is becoming increasingly interesting to investigate the link between teacher and student psychological capital and study results.
In this study previous research on the relationship between leader psychological capital and follower psychological capital is extended by investigating this relationship in a new context – higher education, and by identifying two new moderators: inspirational leadership and the relationship between a leader and follower. The relationships are investigated using a sample of students and their teachers of Eindhoven University of Technology. See Figure 1 for the theoretical model.
The next chapter describes the current literature about psychological capital, inspirational leadership, and the relationship between a leader and follower. In the Method section, the data collection procedure and measures are outlined. The results, based on the collected data, are discussed in the subsequent chapter. In the final chapter the implications of the results of this study, the most important limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
THEORY AND HYPOTHESES
This chapter describes the concept of psychological capital, its key elements, the core construct, and its state-like presence. Subsequently, the chapter continues with a description of the effect of leader psychological capital on follower psychological capital, and the effect on performance. Finally, this chapter outlines how inspirational teaching, and the relationship between the teacher and a student influence the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital. The chapter ends with a graphical illustration of the research model of the stated hypotheses.
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Psychological capital
At the beginning of this century, researchers found that the often used (negative) approach did not result in a complete understanding of how, among other things, human resources contribute to sustainable competitive advantage. They state that a more positive approach can contribute to understanding and building more flourishing organizations and individuals (Fredrickson, 2001; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Positive emotions like joy, pride, inspiration, confidence, optimism, and the relationship with employee well-being and performance received growing interest and attention from researchers during the last decade. The empirical research and theory-building in this area is called positive psychology. Positive psychology attempts to adopt an appreciative and more open perspective regarding human motives, behaviors, and capacities (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Fredrickson, 2001; Ouweneel et al., 2011; Paterson, Luthans, & Jeung, 2014).
Psychological capital departs from positive assumptions; the positive personal resources such as hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism together form a person’s psychological capital. Luthans et al. propose that psychological capital goes beyond human capital (what you know) and social capital (who you know). It is about “who you are” (Luthans & Youssef, 2004; Luthans et al., 2004). The definition of psychological capital applied in this thesis is ‘an individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterized by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success’ (Luthans, Youssef-Morgan, & Avolio, 2015).
In the next part, the four key elements of psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) are further examined. Subsequently, the most important findings of the research leading to the core construct of the key elements together are described. Finally, the most important research on state-like capital, as opposed to trait-like capital, is discussed.
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Hope
In positive psychology, hope has been defined as the belief in one’s capacity to initiate and sustain actions, and the belief in one’s capacity to reach goals (Snyder et al., 1991). In psychological capital hope is a cognitive state, in contrast to what is thought by many people that hope is just wishful thinking. This means that people are able to set realistic and challenging goals, and proactively determine ways on how to reach their goals, and if necessary find alternative means to reach those goals. The relationship between hope and performance has been researched in different areas like sports and health. In work-related outcomes, hope is positively work-related to performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment as demonstrated by Youssef and Luthans (Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Hope also has a positive effect on work and study engagement (Ouweneel et al., 2011; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Snyder et al. (Snyder et al., 2002) examined the relationship between hope and performance in an educational setting. They found that hope is a predictor of long-term academic outcomes. Students that scored high on their hope level, had a higher grade point average (GPA), a higher likelihood of graduating, and showed lower dropout rates.
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1991). In social cognitive theory, human behavior is based on self-influence. This mechanism operates through self-monitoring of one's own behavior, in relation to personal standards and environmental circumstances. Self-efficacy is the individual’s conviction or confidence about a task- and context-specific capability. It differs from the other three key elements of psychological capital because it is task-specific. Self-efficacy changes over time as new information and task experiences are obtained. This means that before employees take action, they evaluate information about their own perceived capabilities at that time. Their expectations of personal efficacy determine whether they put sufficient effort which produces successful outcomes, or low effort which leads to fail a task. Stajkovic and Luthans (1998) examined the results of 114 empirical studies in which the relationship between self-efficacy and work-related performance was measured. They found a strong positive correlation. Moreover, in educational settings this strong correlation was found by Multon et al. (Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991). They performed a meta-analysis
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of 36 studies and found that self-efficacy was strongly related to academic performance and to persistence.
Resilience
Many definitions of resilience exist in literature. They all mention that coping in a situation successfully strengthens one’s competence to deal with a setback in the future (Steward, Reid, & Mangham, 1997). In positive psychology, resilience is the capacity to bounce back from situations of uncertainty, change, conflict, or failure. Resilience changes in different stages of life when one, for example, experiences disasters, family disruption, or unemployment and has to adjust to that (Luthans et al., 2005). In psychological capital, resilience is not only bouncing back from negative events, but also bouncing back from positive events to the equilibrium point (Luthans, 2002). People that score high on resilience demonstrate positive adaptation and subsequent personal growth. Luthans et al. (2005) found that resilience has a positive relation with workplace performance outcomes.
Optimism
Optimistic people are people who expect that good things will happen, rather than bad things. Optimism contributes to health and well-being because optimists are more cheerful, have a positive look on situations, and have different coping mechanisms than pessimists. Optimists exhibit problem-focused coping skills; they accept realities they cannot control, and proactively work to a solution (Rasmussen, Scheier, & Greenhouse, 2009). Optimistic people give themselves credit for positive events; however, when they experience negative events, they blame these on external causes which are specific to a particular situation. Therefore, optimists remain positive for future events (Rasmussen et al., 2009). In positive psychology, optimism is explained by Scheier and Carver (Scheier & Carver, 1985). In their self-regulation theory they suggest that people use effort to achieve goals when they feel optimistic. The benefits of optimism are increased motivation, higher performance, and better physical health. This has been supported by several studies (Peterson, 2000; Schulman, 1999). In educational settings this is also demonstrated in the study of Chremers et al. (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001), which shows that optimism is strongly related to academic performance.
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Core construct
Luthans (2007) found that the four positive emotions – hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, together form a higher order construct, called a core construct. This construct can be seen as an indicator for its underlying factors; the combination of the four key factors has been proven to be more powerful to predict performance than using a single factor (Luthans et al., 2005; Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). This level of construct can for example be compared to intelligence as a construct. Intelligence is also a combination of many empirically derived measures into a single construct. The underlying individual factors have distinct directions, but they also have common processes which lead to an outcome, and enhance this outcome when they are combined together. As an example, an efficacious employee is confident about a certain task and uses sufficient effort which produces successful outcomes. When this employee is also hopeful and sets realistic and challenging goals, and proactively determines ways to reach these goals, and if necessary finds alternative ways how to reach those goals he/she performs better.
Luthans et al. (Luthans et al., 2007) tested this construct of psychological capital in two studies. First, they tested whether an employee’s level of psychological capital is positively related to their performance and job satisfaction. In this study they tested whether psychological capital differs from other constructs. Second, they tested whether the employee’s level of psychological capital has a relatively stronger relationship to their performance and job satisfaction than each of the individual factors (hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism). In this study they tested whether psychological capital can be seen as a core construct.
Luthans et al. (Luthans et al., 2007) developed a psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ) in which every key element was represented by six items. The Cronbach alphas in four samples were as follows: hope ,72, ,75, ,80, ,76; resilience ,71, ,71, ,66, ,72; self-efficacy ,75, ,84, ,85, ,75; optimism ,74, ,69, ,76, ,79. The Cronbach alpha from the overall psychological capital was ,88, ,89, ,89, ,89. Not all Cronbach alphas from the individual elements show an acceptable level in all samples; however, the measure of the overall psychological capital in all four samples was consistently above conventional standards, so the level of internal reliability is adequate. In the second part of this study, the researchers compared psychological capital with core self-evaluations (CSE), and with the big five personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. CSE focuses on an individual's subconscious, fundamental evaluations about themselves, their own abilities, and their own
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control. It involves the four personality traits: locus of control, neuroticism, efficacy, and self-esteem. The researchers found a strong positive relationship between psychological capital and CSE (r = 0,60, p < ,05), and a moderate relationship between psychological capital and two of the big five personality traits: extraversion (r = 0,36, p < ,05), and conscientiousness (r = 0,39, p < ,05). Furthermore, the researchers examined the unique variance regarding job satisfaction and affective organization commitment, and found that psychological capital predicted unique variance beyond the personality traits and CSE. In doing so, they showed that psychological capital, CSE, and the big five personality traits are different constructs.
In another study Luthans et al. (Luthans et al., 2005) explored the relationship between the psychological capital of Chinese factory workers and their performance. They found that the key elements of hope, resiliency, and optimism were positive, and significantly related to performance rated by the supervisors (hope, r = 0,17, p < 0,01; optimism, r = 0,16, p < 0,01; and resiliency, r = 0,24, p < 0,01). Self-efficacy was not measured in this study. The positive psychological capital core factor which contains all three states had a relatively higher and significant relationship with performance (r = 0,26, p < 0,01). Therefore, the combination of the three items, indicating the shared mechanisms between them, had a higher relationship with rated performance than any of them individually; this acts as evidence to support the overall core construct of psychological capital.
State-like capital
According to Luthans et al. (Luthans et al., 2007) psychological capital is state-like capital. The researchers describe a state-trait continuum which begins at pure positive traits and continues with trait-like constructs, then state-like constructs, and ends at pure positive states. Psychological capital, as similar to state-like capital, means that it is not as momentary and subject to change like feelings and emotions, e.g., pleasure, and happiness, which are positive states. It is also not as fixed and difficult to change as the trait-like constructs, for example, the big five personality traits (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness), or even more extreme pure traits like intelligence and heritable characteristics. These tend to be more stable over time, and are fixed and very difficult to change. Therefore, psychological capital can be positioned as a state-like construct between on one hand pure states, and on the other hand traits and trait-like constructs. Psychological capital can
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change and fluctuate over time depending on the context and conditions, and it is open for change and development (Luthans et al., 2007). Luthans et al. (2007) also tested the stability of CSE (,87), conscientiousness (,76), psychological capital (,52), and positive emotions (,46) over a period of time. The results showed that psychological capital and positive emotional states are state-like, while CSE and personality traits are trait-like. This implicates that psychological capital has developmental potential (Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman, & Combs, 2006).
Relationship leader psychological capital and follower psychological capital
Before looking into the relationship between leader psychological capital and follower psychological capital, it should be clear how a leader-follower relationship is defined. A leader-follower relationship suggests a certain composition and relation. Many definitions of leadership exists, but most of them have key elements in common: leadership is not a process of authority or power, but a process of social influence, it maximizes the efforts of others who are not per se organized in a hierarchical structure, and is oriented towards the achievement of a goal (Kruse, 2013; Winston & Patterson, 2006). The most obvious leader-follower relationship exists in work environments. But in this perspective a teacher– student relationship can also be seen as a leader-follower relationship; in an educational setting, teachers are managers of the educational process and students are influenced by their teachers to achieve their learning goals.
Looking at the development of psychological capital and the influence of leaders’ psychological capital on followers’ psychological capital, Walumba et al. (Walumba et al., 2010) show that the leader’s level of psychological capital stimulates followers’ psychological capital. The researchers state that leaders with a high level of psychological capital serve as a role model for their followers, and transfer their positive state to their followers. This is founded on Badura’s social learning theory (Bandura, 1977). According to Bandura (1977), people learn through direct experience and by observing the behavior of others and its consequences. He states that the impact of a role model depends on how similar an individual sees him-/herself with regard to a perceived successful role model. Bandura mentioned three types of modeling stimuli; the first is the presence of a live model who demonstrates certain behavior. The second stimulus is verbal instruction: an individual describes the desired behavior and instructs the other person in how to engage in the behavior. The third one is symbolism, in which modeling occurs
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through media like television, the internet, and literature. Bandura shows that the degree to which a person learns new behavior depends on four processes. The first process is attention; one must be able to recognize the behavior of the role model to learn from it. The second is retention; one must be able to remember the role model’s behavior. The next process is motoric reproduction; one must be able to physically reproduce new patterns of behavior. And the last process is reinforcement and motivation; one must be positively rewarded to show learned new behavior. These four processes indicate that in social learning theory, behavioral and cognitive theories of learning are integrated. Numerous studies have found support for Bandura’s social learning theory.
Avolio et al. (Avolio, Gardner, Walumba, Luthans, & May, 2004) suggest that the influence of leaders on their followers takes place through personal identification; the follower’s values and beliefs become similar to those of their leaders. And through social identification, the follower’s values and beliefs become similar to a group they belong to. Leaders often have a higher status and more power. Employees who respect that status are likely to emulate such behavior.This is also supported by other studies (Hogg, 2001; Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003).
The role modeling and personal identification in education should be further examined between a teacher and the students. Teachers that score high on psychological capital, expect good things to happen in teaching (optimism), believe they can create their own success (self-efficacy, hope), and are able to cope with setbacks (resilience). Teachers that score high on psychological capital show behavior that supports the organization and others (Avey et al., 2011), e.g. sharing creative ideas with colleagues, making suggestions for improvement to management, helping students with questions, staying late to prepare for classes, and doing extra things that are not required for the job. Students that respect their teachers’ status see them as role models and emulate these behaviors. So when a teacher scores high on psychological capital, and students see him/her as a role model, students develop their own psychological capital and score high on psychological capital as well.
Taking together the facts that leaders that score high on psychological capital serve as a role model for their followers through which they transfer their positive state, and because a teacher-student relationship can be seen as a leader-follower relationship, I hypothesize the following:
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Psychological capital and performance
Within the field of positive psychology Frederickson (Fredrickson, 2001) describes a theoretical model explaining how positivity adds to higher levels of performance. In her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, she states that positivity builds on intellectual, physical, social, and other psychological resources. Positive emotions have the ability to broaden people’s momentary thought-action repertoire – how to act in a particular way, as opposed to negative emotions which narrow a person’s momentary thought-action repertoire. Negative emotions lead to direct and immediate actions, while positive emotions like joy, pride, etc. have a complementary effect whereby they invite to play, explore, integrate, and envision future achievement. This leads to broadening a person’s habits in thinking and acting. The newly acquired personal resources are durable and long-lasting, and can be drawn on at other moments (Fredrickson, 2001).
According to Luthans et al. and Walumba et al. (Luthans et al., 2005; Luthans et al., 2007; Walumba et al., 2010), individuals that score high on psychological capital also score higher on performance. In earlier research the relationship of the key elements hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism individually with workplace performance was tested positive. The relationship between psychological capital as a construct was first tested among Chinese factory workers by Luthans et al. (Luthans et al., 2005). Results of this study indicate that the Chinese factory workers’ positive states of hope, optimism, and resilience, separately as well as combined as psychological capital, significantly correlate with their performance as rated by their supervisors. A very important finding in this research is that the positive psychological capital core factor containing all three states had a relatively more significant relationship with performance than the individual states.
Although China has its own specific context in which culture affects attitudes, behavior, and performance, the relationship between psychological capital and performance has been demonstrated in many other studies and cultures. Avey et al. (Avey et al., 2011) performed a meta-analysis on 51 independent samples, in which the relationship between psychological capital and employee attitudes, behaviors, and the relationship with performance are examined. They all showed a positive relationship between psychological capital and performance. Therefore I hypothesize the following:
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Taking Hypotheses 1 and 2 together, I argue that teacher psychological capital is positively related to study results through its positive relationship with student psychological capital. This leads to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Student psychological capital mediates the positive relationship between teacher psychological capital and student study results.
Inspirational leadership
The strength of the effect of teachers’ psychological capital on students’ psychological capital might depend on the degree of perceived inspirational leadership of the teacher. Inspirational leadership (Downton, 1973; McClelland, 1975; Yukl & van Fleet, 1982; Den Hartog, 1996), also labeled by many as charismatic leadership particularly in a business context, is a form of leadership in which leaders are able to empower their followers and build trust through communicating a compelling vision of the future, setting challenging goals, and encouraging to develop an innovative strategy (Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993). According to House et al. (House, Spangler, & Woycke, 1991), charisma only exists because followers say it exists or behave in a certain way.
The effectiveness of charismatic leaders is investigated in several studies, especially since the early 1980s. According to House (House et al., 1991), charismatic leaders are more likely to stimulate their followers’ motives to accomplish a mission. Based on a meta-analysis on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) literature, Lowe et al. (Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996) found that leadership style can predict effectiveness. The MLQ is developed by Bass (1985) to assess leadership styles. Although the strength of the association is less consistent, the relationship between leadership style and effectiveness is consistently significant and positive. The correlation of charismatic leadership varies between r = 0.91 and r = 0.36 in different studies using the MLQ instrument. Also Den Hartog (Den Hartog, 2001) states that one of the outcomes of charismatic leadership is perceived leader effectiveness.
While charisma is a major component of transformational leadership, the results of the more recent meta-analysis of Wang et al. (Wang, Oh, Courtright, & Colbert, 2011) are relevant. Their meta-analysis was based on 117 samples, and the researchers found that transformational leadership was positively
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related to performance on an individual level, team level, and organization level. The magnitude of the relationships they found were ,33 at the team level ,27 at the organization level, and ,25 at the individual level. This indicates a higher effect of transformational leadership on performance at organization and team levels than on an individual level.
Previous research has identified a number of personal characteristics and behaviors of charismatic leaders. Personal characteristics are for example prosocial assertiveness and self-confidence. The behaviors often exhibited by charismatic leaders are the articulation of distal ideological goals, the communication of high expectations, and confidence in followers (Klein & House, 1995). According to Shamir et al. (Shamir & Howell, 1999) charismatic leaders show their values and beliefs through role modeling. A distinctive characteristic of followers of transformational leaders is that their motivation to achieve goals is enhanced by the increased level of social and personal identification (Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003). Chun et al. (Chun, Yammarino, Dionne, Sosik, & Moon, 2009) examined the relationship between charismatic leadership and performance, and found that it was mediated by followers’ personal identification and value internalization with the leader.
Taking this together means that followers who perceive their leader as inspirational, identify with their leaders’ behaviors and are more willing to invest effort and feel enthusiastic about performing tasks. As described earlier, teacher psychological capital is positively linked to student psychological capital when the student sees the teacher as a role model. When this teacher also happens to be an inspirational teacher, then he/she becomes an even more attractive role model with whom the student is more inclined to identify with. This increases the student’s willingness to invest effort and feel enthusiastic about completing tasks further more.
In a teacher-student relationship this implies that the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital which is tested in hypotheses 1, is moderated by the student’s perception of his/her teacher as being inspirational. A teacher that is perceived as highly inspirational strengthens the relationship between the teacher’s psychological capital and the student’s psychological capital. This leads to the following hypothesis:
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Hypothesis 4: Inspirational tutorship moderates the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital. The stronger the student judges his teacher as inspirational, the stronger the positive association between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital.
Relationship teacher student, LMX
The strength of the effect of teacher psychological capital on student psychological capital might depend on the degree of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). The LMX theory of leadership focuses on the two-way relationship between leaders and followers. LMX occurs through a role-making process and high LMX relationships have positive outcomes for leaders, members, and organizations. Relationships are based on trust and respect. These are often emotional relationships that extend beyond the scope of employment, and the development of these relationships is influenced by behaviors and characteristics of leaders and followers (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995). Rockstuhl et al. (Rockstuhl, Dulebohn, Ang, & Shore, 2012) suggest that leaders develop an exchange with each of their members and that leaders do not treat each member the same. The work-related attitudes and behaviors of those members depend on how they are treated by their leader. The effectiveness of LMX is based on the right mix of relational characteristics to achieve the desired outcomes, and occurs when leaders and followers are able to develop mature leadership relationships like partnerships (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995).
In a meta-analysis Dulebohn et al. (Dulebohn, Bommer, Liden, Brouer, & Ferris, 2012) examined 247 studies regarding the antecedents and outcomes of LMX and developed a framework based on this meta-analysis with LMX as a mediator. They tested the framework and found certain leader characteristics, follower characteristics, and interpersonal relationship characteristics, as antecedents of LMX. Leader characteristics like contingent reward behavior (ρ = ,73), transformational leadership (ρ = ,73), interpersonal relationship characteristics like follower perceived similarity (ρ = ,50), and leader trust in the follower (ρ = ,73), are antecedents which showed the highest magnitude of the correlation with LMX. This indicates that LMX is more strongly influenced by leaders than by followers. The researchers also found that the magnitude of the relationships between antecedents and LMX is not influenced by which LMX scales were used by different researchers, the country of the participants, and work settings. Cultural dimensions, like power distance and individualism, however do influence the
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magnitude of the relationships. In this study Dulebohn et al. (2012) confirmed the results of the meta-analysis of Ilies et al. (Ilies, Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007) on outcomes of LMX. Among several weak and moderate relationships, the researchers confirmed previously established strong positive relationships between LMX and overall organizational commitment (ρ = ,47), job satisfaction (ρ = ,49), satisfaction with supervisor (ρ = ,68), perceived procedural justice (ρ = ,55), and follower empowerment (ρ = ,67).
As described earlier, teacher psychological capital is positively linked to student psychological capital when the student sees the teacher as a role model. The more positive and mature the student perceives his/her relationship with the teacher, the more the teacher becomes an attractive role model with whom the student becomes more inclined to identify with. This increases the student’s willingness to engage and feel more enthusiastic in executing their own tasks further more.
In a teacher-student relationship this implies that the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital which is tested in hypotheses 1, is moderated by the degree of LMX between the teacher and student. A strong LMX strengthens the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital. This leads to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 5: The relationship between a student and a teacher moderates the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital. The stronger the perceived relationship, the stronger the positive association between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital.
The conceptual model of this study can be captured as following:
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Inspirational leadership of teacher+
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Teacher Psychological capital Student Psychological capital Study resultsFigure 1. Conceptual model
Relationship between student
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METHODS Sample and procedure
The context of this study is higher education, specifically Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). This study is supported by the university’s Director of the Student and Educational Services, the Dean of the Bachelor College, and the Director of the Personnel Department of the TU/e. All tutors and students involved in the Bachelor course “Calculus” at the Bachelor College of Eindhoven University of Technology are selected in the sample. The tutors are university teachers, high school teachers, staff members, PhD students, or senior students, trained and prepared to guide students. The students are first year bachelor students following the mandatory calculus course, while participating in different majors.
There are three variants of the calculus course, variant A, B, and C. Depending on the student’s major (n = 21), he/she participates in one of the variants. The calculus course has 6 lecture hours each week during the first 10 weeks of the student’s first academic year. In these hours the theory is explained, exercises are discussed, and applications are given. There is one tutorial hour each week in a group of 8-10 students. Each week students practice (digital) exercises, complete homework exercises, and a digital test. The efforts on the site are logged. The tutor can monitor the log file and discuss the efforts with the student. Some exercises are completed on paper. In the tutor-hour, the tutor discusses the homework and digital exercises with students. Participation in this tutor group is obligatory, although there is no sanction if students do not attend. The participation level of the tutor hour in the past years was approximately 80%. There are 8 hours of self-study each week.
The data is collected from 137 tutors and 2399 students, placed in 300 tutor groups with an average of 8 students per tutor group. Some tutors filled in the tutor questionnaire multiple times (n = 15). Only one questionnaire per tutor is randomly selected for further analysis. The response rate of the tutors is 90,51% (124 of 137). The average tutor age is 25,4 years with an SD of 9,79 and varies between 18 and 66. Their average experience is 2,9 years with an SD of 6,53 and varies between 2 months and 40 years. In total 77,4% of the tutors is Dutch, 0,8% is English, and 21,0% is of another nationality. From the tutors who responded, 2,4% are lecturers. The response rate of the students is lower than the response rate of the tutors, as there was only one moment to fill out the questionnaire, and not all students attended the tutor hour at that particular moment. The attendance rate for that period is not known. The response
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rate of the total student sample is 60,55% (n = 1452 of 2399) and the sample used for this study is 35,47% of the completed questionnaires (n = 515 of 1452). This sample consists of four randomly picked students per tutor, preferably from different tutor groups. The average student age is 19 years old, with an SD of 1,22 and varies between 17 and 28 years. In total 70,5% of the students is male and 29,5% is female. While 92,6% of the students is Dutch, 0,4% is English, and 7,0% is of another nationality. Overall, 73,8% followed the Calculus course for the first time, 25,4% followed the course for at least the second time. The number of contact hours between students and tutors varies between 1 and 13, with an SD of 1,02, and 73% of students reported 6 or 7 contact hours in total until the 7th week of the course.
To test the hypothesized relationships, a survey is used to measure teacher and student psychological capital, inspirational tutorship, and the relationship between teacher and student. In the 6th week of the course, an announcement about the survey was placed on OASE, the digital portal for
students, and emailed to all tutors. To minimize bias, the questionnaire is distributed and completed in the 7th week of the course, before the final exams. In order to get a high response rate, the
questionnaires are distributed on paper during the tutor hour. During the first tutor hour, an envelope is delivered at the location of the tutor hour. The envelope is addressed to the tutor by name; the envelope contains a guiding letter with instructions (Appendix 2, Guiding letter), 1 questionnaire "tutor" (Appendix 3, Questionnaire teacher) with blank envelope, 10 questionnaires "student" (Appendix 4, Questionnaire student) with blank envelopes, and 1 big A4 return envelope. Tutors are asked to hand out the questionnaires to the students and allow 5 minutes at the end of their tutor hour for students to complete the questionnaire. Tutors also received multiple questionnaires, one in each tutor hour; they only had to complete one. Tutors collected all the questionnaires anonymously in the blank envelopes from their students, and from themselves in the big A4 envelop which was addressed to the researcher. They handed in the envelopes at the reception desks. At the end of the day all envelopes were collected. In order to identify the tutor and their students, the students are asked to state their name and student number. The results are processed anonymously.
Measures
All variables are checked for missing and incorrect data through running a frequency test. Data of both files is cleaned in two ways. First, when a respondent answered in between two scores, the score is
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replaced with a half value, e.g. between score 2 and 3 is filled out as 2,5. This way missing scores are reduced. Second, missing scores are replaced in SPSS by discrete value 999 and are deleted list wise.
Independent and mediating variable: Psychological capital
The independent variable is the psychological capital of teachers. The mediating variable is the psychological capital of students. The psychological capital is measured by 24 specific items in the form of a self-rating questionnaire. Teachers and students score on a 6 point Likert scale. The questionnaire is validated and reliable in measuring one’s psychological capital (Luthans et al., 2007). It consists of 6 items regarding hope, 6 items regarding efficacy, 6 items regarding resilience, and 6 items regarding optimism. The coefficient alpha of the tutor psychological capital was ,86 and the coefficient alfa of the student score was ,79.
Luthans et al. (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007) based the items in the psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ) on questionnaires from researchers who examined the key items of psychological capital. Items regarding hope are adapted from Snyder et al., (2002), items about efficacy/confidence are adapted from Parker (1998), items about resilience are adapted from Wagnild and Young (1993), and six of the original 10 items about optimism (versus pessimism) are based on the so called Life Orientation Test (LOT) from Scheier and Carver (1985). Because psychological capital is a state-like resource, and thus may change over time (Luthans et al., 2007), the items in the questionnaire only relate to the preceding weeks. Permission is obtained from the original composers of the PCQ to use the questionnaire and to adjust some items for application in an educational environment (Appendix 1, Research Permission and original PCQ). The questionnaire is adjusted to a teacher version and a student version. The adjusted questionnaire is validated by interviewing representatives of both groups during a lunch meeting. For this meeting, tutors were invited randomly by the teacher responsible for the calculus course, and students who previously completed the course and therefore knew how to interpret the items, were also invited.
Three counter-indicative items from the student questionnaire, as well as the teacher questionnaire are recoded. One item is about resilience: “When I have a setback in studying Calculus, I have trouble recovering from it, moving on.” The other two items are about optimism: “If something can go wrong for me studying Calculus, it will”, and “Studying Calculus, things never work out the way I want them to”.
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The teacher items are formulated differently: “When I have a setback in tutoring, I have trouble recovering from it, moving on”, “If something can go wrong for me tutoring-wise, it will”, and “In this tutor job, things never work out the way I want them to”. Scale means of several items are computed.
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on both datasets (teachers and students) showed that two of the key elements of psychological capital ‘hope’ and ‘resilience’ are closely related. All other individual psychological capital key elements showed to be different constructs. Because the hypotheses do not test the key elements of psychological capital separately but as a construct in its entirety, and to be consistent with previous research, no corrections are made for ‘hope’ and ‘resilience’. Means were computed for ‘hope’, ‘efficacy’, ‘resilience’, and ‘optimism’. The mean of ‘psychological capital’ is computed out of these four mean items.
Reliability estimates for each of the psychological capital key elements were determined. Because the reliability of ‘resilience’ showed a low Crohnbach alpha for students, α = ,54 and teachers, α = ,63, item 4 “I usually step over stressful things during my study for Calculus”, is left out. Although Crohnbach alpha of ‘resilience’ remains low for students, α = ,60 and teachers, α = ,65, the Crohnbach alpha of ‘psychological capital’ is α = ,79 for students, and α = ,86 for teachers. This means that psychological capital as a construct is reliable. Furthermore, when the item ‘resilience’ is left out, the Crohnbach alpha of ‘psychological capital’ drops to α = ,73 for students, and to α = ,84 for teachers. This means that ‘resilience’ adds to the reliability of psychological capital as an overall construct.
Dependent variable: Study outcome
The dependent variable is study outcome which is operationalized by the student’s grade for the final written exam. Every Calculus variant has its own exam, so this means there are 3 different exams. The exam is graded by the tutor who has an extensive answering model. In case the tutor is a senior student and is employed as a student-assistant (n = 87), he/she does the preliminary judgment. Senior tutors (n = 11) determine the final result. In all other cases (n = 50) the tutor determines the final result directly. In case of doubt a second review is done. The mean exam grade was 6,02 with an SD of 2,16, a minimum score of 0,0 and a maximum score of 10,0. Student grades of the final exam are obtained from the official records of the student administration.
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Moderating variables: Inspirational tutorship and LMX
Inspirational tutorship is the first of two moderating variables in this study. Inspirational tutorship is measured by 6 items of the charismatic leadership scale of the CLIO questionnaire (De Hoogh, Koopman, & Den Hartog, 2004). It reflects the articulation of an attractive vision, providing meaning to the follower’s work and role modeling of desired behavior. Students score on a 5 point Likert scale. The inspirational tutorship score was computed as the mean score across the 6 items. The Crohnbach alpha of inspirational tutorship is ,82. This means that the reliability of this construct is very good (around α = ,80).
The second moderating variable in this study is the relationship between student and teacher. This is measured by 10 of the original 11 items of the Leader Member Exchange questionnaire (Liden & Maslyn, 1998). The item “My supervisor is the kind of person one would like to have as a friend” was perceived as not appropriate in a teacher-student relationship. Therefore this item was left out. The items determine how a student sees his/her relationship with his/her tutor. Students score on a 5 point Likert scale. The LMX score was computed as the mean score across the 10 items. The Crohnbach alpha of LMX is ,88. This means that the reliability of this construct is excellent (around α = ,90).
Control variables
The study included control variables to control possible alternative explanations, such as familiarity with the tutor, experience of the tutor, native/nonnative speakers, and starting level of calculus knowledge with students. Results are controlled for teachers’ age, teachers’ tenure, group size, students’ gender, nationality, language used during tutor hours, number of contact hours, and the grade of the start exam. While only student age and student gender seemed to affect the results, these two variables are included in the analysis.
Validation of constructs
Because the questionnaires are originally used to test psychological capital, inspirational leadership, and LMX in a leader - follower work environment, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is conducted to test
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the validity of the variables in an educational context using teachers and students. Followers did not differentiate between inspirational leadership and LMX. Both scales loaded high on the same factor; this means there is an overlap between the constructs.
Data aggregation
The data of the student file is aggregated to the tutor group level. In the aggregated file, means of all student items are computed. The appropriateness of the within tutor group agreement for inspirational tutorship and LMX is checked by calculating the intraclass correlations (ICC). These both attested to be very low; inspirational tutorship ICC = ,0024 and LMX ICC = ,0028. This means that students differ strongly in their view on LMX and on their tutor being inspirational.
RESULTS
First the assumptions of multiple linear regression are tested: (1) There is a linear relationship between variables, see Figures 2a and 2b. No outliers are corrected. (2) The variance of all explanatory variables is checked and they all have a range of values, which is good, see Figure 3a, 3b, and 3c. (3) The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of all variables is calculated to check for multicollinearity. All VIF values are below 5, which means that there is no multicollinearity, see Table 1. (4) Homoscedasticity is checked, which means that residuals do not vary systematically with the predicted values. The residuals vary in a clear pattern, which is good, see Figure 4a and 4b. (5) Distribution of the residuals is checked and found to be approximately normally distributed, see Figure 5a and 5b. All of the assumptions of multiple linear regression are met and shown in Appendix 5, Tables and Figures of MLR assumptions.
Table 2 shows correlations and descriptive statistics of all variables. Positive correlations are found between student psychological capital and grades of the start exam, as well as the final exam. A negative correlation is found between student psychological capital and student age. There is a correlation between student psychological capital and student gender: male students score higher on psychological capital than female students. As expected, there are strong positive correlations between teacher psychological capital, tutor age, and tutor experience. Teacher psychological capital does not correlate with student psychological capital. Inspirational tutorship highly correlates positively with
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LMX. It also has a positive correlation with students’ age: the older the student, the higher he/she perceives the tutor as inspirational. Both the number of contact hours and the number of times a student has followed the Calculus course have no significant correlation with grades of the final exam.
Male students score higher on psychological capital (mean = 3,94) than female students (mean = 3,80), and younger students score higher on psychological capital (mean = 4,06) than older students (mean = 3,79). Because it is interesting to see on which dimensions of the student psychological capital differences occur, psychological capital is as well explored at the level of the individual key elements. Figure 6 shows the linear relation between the key elements of psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism) and age on the individual student level (n = 515). Hope, resilience, and optimism decrease as the student’s age increases, efficacy increases as the student’s age increases. Figure 7 shows a chart of the key elements of psychological capital and students’ gender. Male students score higher on every key element of psychological capital than female students, particularly on resilience.
Means, Standard Deviations, Correlations
Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1. Tutor psychological capital 4,59 0,56 (,86)
2. Student psychological capital 3,89 0,31 0,02 (,79)
3. Grade final exam 6,02 1,23 0,08 0,24 ** _
4. Inspirational leadership total 3,51 0,34 0,13 -0,10 0,07 (,82)
5. LMX 3,52 0,34 0,07 0,02 0,03 0,83 ** (,88) 6. Age tutor 24,93 9,79 0,18 * -0,11 0,14 -0,14 -0,19 * _ 7. Experience tutor 2,73 6,53 0,23 * -0,04 0,08 -0,02 -0,05 0,84 ** _ 8. Lecturer tutor 0,98 0,15 -0,03 -0,03 -0,06 -0,09 -0,12 -0,51 ** -0,65 ** _ 9. Age student 18,59 0,82 0,12 -0,27 ** -0,14 0,24 ** 0,20 * -0,05 0,00 0,05 _ 10. # contact hours 6,82 0,69 0,13 0,06 0,16 0,15 0,14 0,08 0,09 -0,02 0,15 _
11. # times followed Calculus 0,27 0,32 0,08 -0,15 -0,03 0,15 0,08 -0,07 -0,07 0,13 0,52 ** 0,05 _
12. Gender student 0,30 0,29 0,13 -0,32 ** -0,09 0,09 0,06 -0,09 -0,06 -0,06 0,13 0,20 * 0,06 _
13. Grade start exam 7,09 0,98 -0,08 0,33 ** 0,54 ** -0,12 -0,12 0,16 0,05 0,06 -0,51 ** 0,05 -0,25 ** -0,32 ** _
N = 124 tutor groups. Age tutor and students in years and months. Experience tutor in years and months. Lecturer tutor coded as yes = 0, no = 1. Gender coded as male = 0, female = 1.
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
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Next, further analyses are carried out to understand how the correlations interact with each other in order to test the five hypotheses. Because the overlap between inspirational tutorship and LMX is high (as also shown by the factor analysis), and in the regression analysis inspirational tutorship explained the highest amount of variance, LMX is left out from further analysis. Confidence intervals were set on a 90% interval level. Tutor psychological capital and inspirational leadership were mean centered prior to analysis. To test our hypotheses, the SPSS macro (model 7) of Hayes (Hayes, 2012) was used to execute this in three steps.
In the first step of the analysis, the relationship between the independent variable teacher psychological capital and the mediating variable student psychological capital is examined, and is not significant (p = ,3851). Results are presented in the upper part of Table 4. Hypothesis 1, which states that teacher psychological capital has a positive relationship with student psychological capital, is not supported. Hypothesis 3, which states that student psychological capital mediates the positive relationship between teacher psychological capital and student study results is also not supported, because there is no significant relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital (see above).
In the second step of the analysis, the relationship between student psychological capital and study outcomes as formulated in hypothesis 2 is tested. Results are presented in the lower part of Table 4 and show that the model is significant with F (4, 119) = 2,2107, and p = 0,0397. Hypothesis 2 is supported; the higher the students’ psychological capital, the higher the students’ study outcomes. When the
3,40 3,50 3,60 3,70 3,80 3,90 4,00 4,10 4,20 4,30 17 18 19 20 21 22 Linear (Hope) Linear (Efficacy) Linear (Resilience) Linear (Optimism) 3,10 3,20 3,30 3,40 3,50 3,60 3,70 3,80 3,90 4,00 4,10 4,20 Male Female Hope Efficacy Resilience Optimism Figure 6. Age in years Av er age sc or e k ey e le m en ts Hope Efficacy Resilience Optimism Gender Av er age sc or e k ey e le m en ts Figure 7.
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student psychological capital measure increases by one point, the grade of the final exam increases by 0,7918 points (coefficient).
The third step tested whether the effect of teacher psychological capital on student psychological capital is moderated by inspirational tutorship. The effect of the interaction is not significant (p = ,1439), thus hypothesis 4 is not supported; inspirational tutorship does not moderate the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital. Results are presented in the upper part of Table 4 (combined with the results of hypothesis 1).
As described earlier, the moderating effect of LMX is ignored further on, hence hypothesis 5 is not relevant.
Additional results
Additional analysis of the surveyed variables based on the student survey response (n = 497), examined the role of inspirational tutorship as the independent variable and study outcomes as the dependent variable, mediated by student psychological capital. The model attending these additional results is illustrated as follows:
Estimated coefficients of the research model
Predictor β SE F R²
Psychological Capital Student
Constant 5,47 0,62
Inspirational Leadership - 0,02 0,08
Age student - 0,08 0,03
Gender student - 0,31 0,09
Psychological Capital Tutor 0,04 0,05
Psychological Capital Tutor x Inspira ional leadership - 0,19 0,13 5,09 0,18
Exam Grade
Constant 5,49 3,31
Psychological Capital Tutor 0,19 0,20
Age student - 0,14 0,14
Gender student - 0,13 0,40
Psychological Capital Student 0,79 0,38 2,21 0,07
N = 124 tutor groups.
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The SPSS macro (model 4) of Hayes (Hayes, 2012) was used to execute the analysis in three steps. In the first step of the additional analysis the relationship between inspirational tutorship and student psychological capital is examined. Results show that inspirational tutorship has a significant positive effect (β = ,1191) on student psychological capital with F (3, 493) = 6,1149 when controlled for students’ gender (β = -,1434) and students’ age (β = -,0438). The total effect on student psychological capital explained by inspirational tutorship is 3,59%. Results are presented in the upper part of Table 5.
In the second step, the relationship between student psychological capital and study outcomes is examined. Results are presented in the lower part of Table 5, and show that student psychological capital has a significant positive effect on study outcomes (β = 1,2173) with F (4, 492) = 13,1732, and p = 0,0000 when controlled for students’ gender (β = ,0741) and students’ age (β = -,1599).
In the third step, the significance of the direct and indirect effect of inspirational tutorship on study outcomes through student psychological capital is examined. There is no significant direct effect, though there is a significant indirect effect of inspirational tutorship on study outcomes through student psychological capital. Results are shown in Table 6.
Estimated coefficients of the additional model
Predictor β SE F R²
Psychological Capital Student
Constant 4,34 0,37 Age student - 0,04 0,02 Gender student - 0,14 0,05 Inspirational Leadership 0,12 0,04 6,12 0,04 Exam Grade Constant 4,29 1,68 Age student - 0,16 0,08 Gender student 0,07 0,21 Inspirational leadership - 0,02 0,18
Psychological Capital Student 1,22 0,18 13,17 0,10
N = 497 students. Table 5
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Inspirational leadership of teacher Student Psychological capital Study results25
In spite of the rejection of hypothesis 4 in the original research model, the additional research model revealed that inspirational tutorship has a direct effect on student psychological capital, thereby disproving its role as a moderator, and instead confirming its role as an antecedent of student psychological capital.
DISCUSSION
This study extends the context of the relationship between leader psychological capital and follower psychological capital to a higher education context, with teachers as leaders and students as their followers.
First, the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital is not confirmed in this study. According to Bandura’s social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), one of the ways people learn is by observing the behavior and its consequences of role models. Bandura states that the impact of a role model depends on how similar an individual sees him/herself with regard to a perceived successful role model (Bandura, 1997). With respect to Bandura’s stimuli, the first one – the presence of a live model who demonstrates certain behavior, is at least partially true; the tutor is present as a live model. The visibility of the tutor’s resilience thinking, efficacious behavior, goal-directed behavior, and optimism is questionable. Also the visibility of the second stimulus – verbal instruction, and the third stimulus – symbolism, are questionable. In the examined situation, students did not identify their tutor as a successful role model from whom they are inclined to adopt a positive state; their psychological capital is not increased and developed as a result of the psychological capital of their tutor.
Psychological capital is measured in the form of a self-rating questionnaire. Although tutors were invited to complete only one questionnaire, 13 of them completed 2, and 1 completed 3 questionnaires. In the data processing, doubles are left out randomly. Tutors were asked to rate their psychological capital regarding their tutoring role in the context of the calculus course. It was assumed that this would
Results indirect effect
Mediator Indirect effect SE
Lower level Upper level
Psychological Capital Student 0,14 0,07 0,05 0,29
Results are based on on 1000 bootstrap samples. CI = confidence interval
90% CI
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be identical in every tutor group, since according to the definition, psychological capital is an individual’s positive psychological state of development (Luthans et al., 2015). Nevertheless some of their answers varied in the different questionnaires.Seemingly, a tutor assesses him/herself differently depending on the context/tutor group which differs in student composition. The students’ score on psychological capital varies depending on their age and gender. The younger a student, the higher they scored on psychological capital. A younger student is more positive regarding his/her status studying calculus. The only exception to this concerns one of the individual key elements of psychological capital: efficacy. Efficacy differs from the other three key elements of psychological capital because it is task-specific. Self-efficacy changes over time as new information and task experiences are obtained (Bandura, 1991). An older student has obtained more calculus experience as compared to a younger student and therefore scores higher on this dimension. Male students scored higher on psychological capital than female students, especially regarding resilience. Past research supports the influence of gender on personal values. Female individuals were found to be more concerned with task-related support from their leader (e.g. encouragement to participate in the task, and providing help in solving problems), while male individuals are more concerned with the outcomes (Buttner, 2004). Psychological capital is about the belief in one’s capacity to reach goals; the conviction or confidence about a task- and context-specific capability; the capacity to bounce back from situations of uncertainty or change; and problem-focused coping or proactively working to reach a solution. These characteristics are more important to males, who have a stronger focus on outcomes and results, than to females who tend to seek more affirmation outside themselves.
Second, in this study a positive relationship between student psychological capital and study outcomes is confirmed. Students that score high on psychological capital, score higher on their final exam. In total 6,92% of the variance of the exam grade is explained by student psychological capital. This confirms results of previous research in which follower psychological capital has shown to be positively related to performance outcomes (Luthans et al., 2005; Luthans et al., 2007; Walumba et al., 2010). This includes the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001), which states that positive emotions contribute to exploratory behaviors that create learning opportunities and goal achievement, and in this way contributes to better performance.
Third, two moderators of the relationship between teacher psychological capital and student psychological capital are introduced: inspirational tutorship and LMX. Respondents did not distinguish
