Mediating role of psychological empowerment in the effect of positive leadership behaviour on task performance

In today's business world, the importance of human resources is growing by the day for organisations facing intense competition. It is crucial for the organisation to gain a competitive advantage that employees, who play a key role in achieving the organisation's aims and objectives, embrace their job descriptions within the organisation and perform accordingly. At this point, the prevailing leadership philosophy within the organisation plays a key role in employees' ability to embrace the organisation's objectives and take action. Whilst a negative approach to leadership within an organisation may lead to adverse outcomes such as absenteeism, an increase in staff turnover, internal conflicts, a decline in commitment to work and a fall in productivity; a positive approach to leadership can yield positive outcomes such as increased productivity, high efficiency, high motivation, synergy in innovation and creativity, employee satisfaction and improved performance. At this point, we encounter the concept of positive leadership, which focuses on positive relationships between leaders and employees. Positive leadership, which is underpinned by concepts such as positive belief, optimism, positive communication and a positive outlook, makes a significant contribution to businesses' ability to achieve their long-term goals and ensure their sustainability. In an organisation where a positive perception of leadership prevails, employees feel psychologically empowered and perform well in achieving the organisation's objectives. High performance requires not only employees' knowledge, skills and competences, but also their individual efforts. High performance can only be said to exist when employees go beyond their job descriptions and voluntarily demonstrate extra behaviour that benefits the organisation. The study aims to determine whether psychological empowerment mediates the effect of positive leadership behaviour on task performance. A quantitative research method was employed in the study. In line with the aim of the study, the 753 bank employees in Malatya province constitute the study population. Data was collected using a questionnaire from a sample of 333 bank employees selected using a random sampling method. The data collected were analysed using the Process Macro, SPSS and AMOS software packages. According to the results of the analysis, it was concluded that positive leadership behaviour has a positive effect on task performance and that psychological empowerment mediates this effect. Keywords: Positive Leadership, Job Performance, Psychological Empowerment