All you need is love: the relationship between agape and work outcomes
International Journal of Organizational Analysis
ISSN: 1934-8835
Article publication date: 8 September 2021
Issue publication date: 26 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to lay the necessary conceptual and empirical groundwork of agape in organizations. Specifically, the authors reviewed literature on agape; advanced formal definition of agape; explained the relationship of agape with related variables; developed a scale to measure agape and provided evidence of its reliability and construct validity; showed how agape uniquely predicted employee outcomes beyond transformational leadership; and showed how agape compensated for the lack of transformational leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a survey with 214 working executives who rated their manager on transformational leadership and agape behaviours, and later indicated their own work attitudes. Next, the authors conducted a 20-min between-subjects vignette experiment with 147 business management students who were provided with a description of a supervisor and asked to indicate their work attitudes under the supervisor.
Findings
The authors advanced an operational definition and a scale to measure agape. The findings of this study indicated that agape was a unidimensional construct with high reliability. It had significant positive relationships with followers’ job satisfaction, faith and loyalty, team commitment, satisfaction and risk-taking; explained incremental variance in employee outcomes beyond transformational leadership; and compensated for the lack of transformational leadership.
Research limitations/implications
The present research has the potential to inform recruitment, selection, training, promotion and performance evaluation decisions in organizations.
Originality/value
The authors responded to calls for developing a clear and consistent conceptualization and operationalization of agape for improving scholarly research and leadership training and development.
Keywords
Citation
Carvalho, F.K. and Mulla, Z.R. (2023), "All you need is love: the relationship between agape and work outcomes", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 1061-1080. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-2021-2713
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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