Employee psychological capital in a not for profit organisation. Is this the concept that holds the key in a changing economy?

Abstract or Summary

Not for profit organizations in New Zealand servicing the disability sector struggle to secure and hold on to high quality employees in buoyant economic times due mainly to working conditions and remuneration. A review of the literature suggests employee psychological capital as a concept and its accumulative effect of self efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience hold the key to contributing to positive organizational behaviour factors of employee wellbeing, job satisfaction, leadership credibility, trust, and superior performance of employees. The second year of data has recently been analysed in an ongoing longitudinal study of a Waikato based not for profit organisation where all 100 employees are provided an opportunity to participate on an annual basis. Employees in this organisation attribute 65% of their remuneration package to non monetary benefits. They seek job satisfaction from being respected and valued, being able to do challenging and interesting work, and having a great relationship with their leader. This study looks at the gains in employee psychological capital from 2008 to 2009 and attempts to understand why or how this has happened by looking at a variety of organizational behaviour factors such as staff satisfaction, happiness and wellbeing; stress indicators; quality of leadership; performance of support services over the past twelve months; the organisation’s code of ethics; the involvement of employees with the annual business plan, reasons for employees taking sick leave; ability of employees to manage change; changes in the level of commitment; and the likelihood of employees working for the same organisation in 12 months time. The results also compared variations in psychological capital between the leaders and service workers. The findings have implications for further research.