All you need is love: the relationship between agape and work outcomes

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.

Effective Leadership for Knowledge Sharing by Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) during Crisis

“…Carvalho [31] conducts a theoretical analysis of the power of love in leadership and states nine propositions: It adopts the concept of the AGAPE and understands it from religious, philosophical, scientific, and political perspectives. It also describes the relationship between AGAPE-based leadership and authentic, ethical, spiritual, transformational, and servant leadership.…”

“…It also describes the relationship between AGAPE-based leadership and authentic, ethical, spiritual, transformational, and servant leadership. The author's analytical model of leaders' AGAPE behaviors includes humility, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, emotional control, impartiality, and empathy [31]. It also proposed the antecedents of leaders' AGAPE: leaders' self-evaluation + (positively related to leaders' AGAPE), leaders' narcissism (negatively related to leaders' AGAPE), leaders' Machiavellianism, leaders' selftranscendent values +, and leader ecosystem motivational system +.…”

“…Furthermore, it discusses the mediating processes of leaders' AGAPE: follower commitment to, and trust in, the leader. In addition, it proposes the moderating processes of leaders' AGAPE: follower power-distance orientation and follower attachment style [31]. Effective Leadership for Knowledge Sharing by Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) during Crisis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106934 Dewi [32] analyzed digital leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…In addition, ref. [31] emphasizes the power of love in leadership. Factors such as forgiveness, self-sacrifice, emotional control, impartiality, and empathy help leaders build trusting relationships with employees more easily.…”

Love Is Not a Panacea: Moderating Role of Followers’ Attachment Dimensions on the Effectiveness of Agape-Based Leadership

“…Although love (in agape form) has been described as the foundation of many leadership concepts such as servant leadership (Patterson, 2003), it has remained elusive. Leading with love (agape) or the term ‘agape-based leadership’ has been conceptualized as an intentional response to promote well-being when confronted by that which generates ill-being through humility, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, impartiality, emotional control and empathy (Carvalho & Mulla, 2021).…”