The when and how of psychological Capital’s upward contagion effect: Exploring through a cross-cultural lens

Abstract

The underlying mechanisms through which psychological capital (PsyCap) spreads upward (from followers to leaders) have largely gone unstudied. As such, the focus of this article is to develop some of the theoretical underpinnings of how followership influences leader PsyCap and importantly, highlighting the possible boundary conditions involved in this spread. Specifically, we draw from the resource theory to speculate followers' leader-specific relational models, positive behaviors and LMX as the mechanisms serially underlying PsyCap’s upward contagion effect. Research propositions derived from the conceptual framework are presented. Implications for cross-cultural leadership and future research agenda conclude the article.