The interaction effect of psychological capital on the relationship between self-driven personality and happiness at work in the present and post-COVID-19 era

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-08-2021-0275
• Published date: 14 October 2021
• Date: 14 October 2021
• Pages: 562-576
• Subject Matter: Strategy,Corporate governance
• Author: Charles Kawalya,Francis Kasekende,John C. Munene

The interaction effect of psychological

capital on the relationship between

self-driven personality and happiness at

work in the present and post-COVID-19 era

Charles Kawalya, Francis Kasekende and John C. Munene

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paperis to examine how psychological capital (PsyCap) and self-driven

personalityfuse to affect happiness at workin the nursing profession in Uganda.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper adopts a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical

design. The authors use structural equation modelling to test hypotheses. Using proportionate and

simple randomsampling procedures, a sample of 900 respondentswas drawn from different hospitalsin

Ugandaof which a response rate of 88.9% was obtained.

Findings –The magnitude effect of self-driven personality on happiness at workdepends on PsyCap,

implyingthat the assumption of non-additivity is met.

Research limitations/implications –Only a single researchmethodological approach was used, and

futureresearch through interviews could be undertakento triangulate.

Practical implications –To boost happiness at the workplace, heads of hospitals should always

endeavour to find a viable self-driven personality and PsyCap blend that can add value to nurses’

happinessin Uganda.

Social implications –It is essential for healthhuman resource managers to understand, how self-driven

personalityand PsyCap foster happinessamong nurses in Uganda.

Originality/value –This is oneof the few studies that focus on testing the interactiveeffects of PsyCap on

the relationship between self-driven personality and happiness at the workplace in Uganda’s health

sector.

Keywords Interactioneffect, Happiness at the workplace,Psychological capital,Self-driven personality,

Nursing,Workplace, Organizationalbehaviour, Management

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

There is growing interest among researchers and practitioners to understand happy

employees via a positive lens, more so during this era of the COVID-19 pandemic and its

aftermaths. Happy employees tend to be more productive compared to the unhappy ones

(Joo and Lee, 2017). According to Norman et al. (2010), unhappy employees may not pay

full attention to any activity at work implying that happiness is a great factor in influencing

individuals’ levels of performance. Saleem et al. (2021) argue that deviance from

governance practices influences firm’s performance through a happy workforce. The

scholars further aver that firms which use innovative governance mechanisms, mechanisms

such as corporate governance (Mishra and Mohanty, 2014) that make workers happy,

usually stay ahead of the market by leading the governance trends. Kawalya et al. (2019)

found happy employees to be interested in their work and to sustain positive emotions

Charles Kawalya is based

at the Department of

Human Resource

Management, Faculty of

Management and Public

Policy, Makerere University

Business School, Kampala,

Uganda.

Francis Kasekende is

based at School of

Business and Information

Technology, Nkumba

University, Entebbe,

Uganda and Department of

Human Resource

Management, Faculty of

Management and Public

Policy, Makerere University

Business School, Kampala,

Uganda. John C. Munene is

based at School of

Postgraduate Studies and

Research, Makerere

University School of

Business, Kampala,

Uganda.

Received 2 August 2021

Revised 20 September 2021

Accepted 20 September 2021

Conflict of interest: There is no

conflict of interest. There is no

funding for this study. It was a

self-sponsored study.

PAGE 562 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jVOL. 22 NO. 3 2022, pp. 562-576, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 DOI 10.1108/CG-08-2021-0275