Investigating positive leadership, psychological empowerment, work engagement and satisfaction with life in a chemical industry
Abstract
Today s business world can be described as a VUCA world, characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (Rodriguez & Rodriguez, 2015). Organisational leaders find today s business environment depressing and in an uncontrollable negative spiral (Youssef– Morgan & Luthans, 2013). Kim Cameron, a leading positive organisational scholar, has said, Business leaders give more attention to the negative than to the positive, especially in trying times (Cameron, 2010, p. 45). Trying times are not the exception anymore, but the norm. The world economy is still struggling, as seen from recent reports on the United States of America and the European economies (Appelbaum, 2012; Brittain, 2012; Inman, 2013). The economic growth in South Africa was slower since 2012 due to the sustained weakness in the global economy and domestic structural constraints (African Economic Outlook, 2012; McKinsey, 2015). The South African economy currently appears quite vulnerable following a deterioration in domestic socioeconomic and political conditions (Smit, Grobler & Nel, 2014). The South African economy has slowed down dramatically, job creation has been disappointing, unemployment is high, while the country experience enduring poverty (McKinsey, 2015). These factors, linked with energy challenges, lengthy strikes in the mining industry and pressures on manufacturing organisations led to growing pessimism among people. In addition, the economic downturn in China and thereby lower Chinese demand for commodities has impacted negatively on the South African
Collections
- Faculty of Humanities [2033]