This study examined the mediating effect of ethical leadership on the relationship between workplace ethics culture and work engagement among employees in a railway transport organisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The sample consisted of (n = 839: females = 32%) permanently employed staff in a railway organisation in the DRC. The employees were required to complete the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), the Ethical Corporate Virtue model (ECV) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Mediating regression analyses were conducted to predict work engagement from workplace ethics culture partialling out ethical leadership. The results show that workplace ethics culture had a significantly positive effect on work engagement. The results further indicated that workplace ethics culture through the mediation of perceived ethical leadership had a significantly positive effect on the work engagement dimensions of vigour, dedication and absorption. The findings provide evidence that ethical leadership plays a crucial role in shaping workplace ethics culture and employees' level of work engagement in an emerging country work setting.

Orientation: Psychological well-being among master’s students is seen as a contributing factor towards having a meaningful, enjoyable and productive experience as a student.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a qualitative description of the psychological well-being experiences of first-year students in a part-time coursework master’s degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology (IOP) in order to foster an empathetic understanding of their experiences.Motivation for the study: The understanding of their master’s students’ psychological wellbeing experiences will assist university IOP departments in facilitating the appropriate psychological containment to students and the optimisation of their resilience towards meaningfully completing their first year and perhaps also their master’s degree.Research design, approach and method: Qualitative research was conducted within a hermeneutic interpretive stance. Data were gathered from a focus group with 10 conveniently chosen participants. Thematic content analysis provided eight themes, which were interpreted and linked to the literature on psychological well-being.Main findings: Student distress caused by job demands leads to languishing and feeling overwhelmed. In contrast, student eustress resulting from job resources leads to flourishing, consisting of self-efficacy, locus of control and optimism.Practical implications: University IOP departments can use the information towards understanding their master’s students’ psychological well-being experiences, which could assist in the students’ successful and timeous completion of their studies.Contribution: The study contributes to the literature on master’s students’ real negative and positive experiences and psychological well-being, which university departments often deny or dismiss as idiosyncratic.Keywords: positive organisational behaviour; job demands; job resources; multiple roles; support system; self-efficacy; hope/optimism

Self-transcendence has become and remains an important research theme. Little is known about the role of self-transcendence in cultivating meaningful work and its impact on the wellbeing of middle managers in the face of adversity, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meaning middle managers attach to their work by investigating the role of self-transcendence in cultivating meaning and wellbeing in a cohort of seven South African middle managers employed in cross-boundary service industry settings. Data were collected through unstructured narratives. Findings confirm that self-transcendence serves as a coping mechanism during adversity and that it facilitates the re-negotiation of meaning, resulting in three potential shifts: the shift from a blame orientation to a work orientation, the shift from reflection to reflexivity and the shift from self-consciousness to other-consciousness. The findings also highlight how self-transcendence enables the exploration of the adaptive benefits of anxiety. The findings contribute new insights into the construct of self-transcendence and extend research on existential positive psychology. It is suggested that organizations invest in reflexive practices as a tool to promote deep learning and connectivity by exploring dialectical processes through reflexive work.

Research approach/design and method: A convenience sample of 1764 respondents, employed in both private and public sectors (employed in 31 different organisations), relatively well representative of the South African workforce in general, was used for this study.Main findings: An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis yielded a one-factor solution of servant leadership that has acceptable psychometric and fit properties. The instrument was further found to have adequate convergent validity (compared with cognate leadership and organisational behaviour constructs).Practical/managerial implications: The SLQ7 version was found to be suitable for use across different samples, including the private and public sectors, and could be used with confidence within the South African context. Contribution/value-add: This study's contribution to science, practice and the community is based on the importance of the servant leadership construct when leading people, specifically in the South African (and African) context. The study confirms the servant leadership scale as a valid and reliable measuring instrument in the South African context and, determines how servant leadership impacts organisational behaviour within the South African and African context.

The opinion that the workplace should be viewed as a rational environment is being swiftly dismantled by acknowledging and harnessing the power of emotions in favour of individual and organisational outcomes. This study explored the lived experiences of emotional labour among women leaders in the consulting industry in South Africa. A qualitative study was conducted and informed by the hermeneutic phenomenological perspective. Data were gathered through in-depth, unstructured interviews with eight women leaders resident in the Gauteng Province, South Africa. The data gathered were analysed by applying a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis, and interpreted from a work- and personally related emotional labour stance. The empirical findings suggest that these women leaders enjoy very little work-life balance, which is accepted as common practice in this industry. Role complexity and personal life obligations result in role conflict. Their emotional wellbeing is adversely affected, which manifests in guilt, loneliness, loss of identity, alienation, shame and the emotional exhaustion they experience. Furthermore, it seems that adequate organisational support is not experienced by women leaders in this volatile, highly pressured emotional context. This study contributes to the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, the literature on emotional labour, as well as human resource practices such as talent management, retention strategies and the career management of women leaders in the consulting industry by making suggestions for human resource practices and future research.