How leaders generate hope in their followers

Abstract

The importance of hope in the leader-subordinate relationship is discussed and placed in the context of South African organisations struggling to overcome the legacy of the past, and trying to compete in a competitive environment. The article draws on the field of positive psychological capital and uses this as a framework to investigate the impact of high-hope leaders on employee engagement and work performance. It asks what it is that leaders do to generate hope in their followers and how their actions affect their followers’ feelings and intentions. The research involved in-depth interviews with the followers of high-hope leaders, seeking to identify the traits and skills exhibited by these leaders. In addition to competences usually associated with good leaders, the high-hope leaders display additional competences which set them apart from others. The article proposes a checklist of attributes required by leaders to generate hope in their followers.