How do leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate shape employee exhaustion and engagement? Toward a cascading‐effects model

"That was one of my most difficult and biggest challenges": experiences, preconditions and preventive measures of health-oriented leadership in virtual teams - A qualitative study with virtual leaders

BACKGROUND

Health-oriented leadership (HoL) has a positive impact on health- and work-related outcomes of employees in face-to-face settings. Increased digitization during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many changes and increased job demands. According to current state of research, HoL in virtual teamwork is insufficiently researched. The aim of the study is to examine the experiences of virtual leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify preconditions and preventive measures for promoting HoL.

METHOD

Using a qualitative study design, semi-structured, guide-based telephone interviews were conducted with 16 German virtual leaders between May and July 2021. The collected data were inductively analyzed and interpreted using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. Explorative analyses of differences between leaders with and without pre-pandemic experiences with virtual leadership were made.

RESULTS

Results indicated that leaders, regardless of pre-pandemic experiences with virtual leadership, faced diverse challenges in implementing HoL in virtual teamwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual leaders perceived personal preconditions (e.g., leaders' characteristics or behaviors), organizational preconditions (support by management or open-minded corporate culture), social preconditions (e.g., social support by team) and technical preconditions (e.g., sufficient technical equipment) as conducive to implementation of HoL. Almost all leaders with pre-pandemic experience identified a need for structural preventive measures, whereas almost all leaders without pre-pandemic experience reported a need for behavioral preventive measures in order to promote HoL in virtual teams.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that implementing HoL in virtual teamwork is challenging, complex and requires adjustments in leadership behavior. Thereby, the study provides initial empirical findings for a holistic approach to HoL implementation in virtual teams, considering beneficial multilevel preconditions. Due to a limited generalization of present results, longitudinal and interventional studies will be necessary for the analysis of causal relationships in future research. In particular, a holistic research perspective in order to understand the complex, contextual interdependencies of leadership is recommended. In practice, based on a differentiated needs analysis, structural preventive measures for a holistic organizational development as well as behavioral preventive measures for ongoing personnel development are recommended.

Does Organizational Commitment to Mental Health Affect Team Processes? A Longitudinal Study

Purpose

Team processes, such as reflexivity and participation, are critical for organizational sustainability, especially in high-reliability professions such as healthcare. However, little is known about health-related predictors of team processes. Basing our hypotheses on the Input-Process-Output (IPO) model, this study investigates the influence of perceived organizational commitment to mental health (OCMH) on healthcare workers' team reflexivity and participation via mental health-specific leadership (MHsL) and team autonomy.

Patients and Methods

The study involved 82 participants (ie, physicians, nurses, healthcare assistants, healthcare technicians, and physiotherapists) working in the Medicine, Emergency, and Neurological Departments at a large public healthcare organization in Italy. Data was gathered at 2-time points, 14 months apart.

Results

The results suggest that healthcare workers' perception of their organization's support for mental health at T1 significantly impacts team participation at T2 through MHsL and team autonomy. Likewise, the indirect effect of OCMH through MHsL and team autonomy was also significant in the model predicting team reflexivity. However, in both models, no direct relationship of OCMH on the dependent variables was found.

Conclusion

The findings highlight the importance of a mental health-supportive environment and leadership to foster team autonomy and, subsequentially, team processes, which are fundamental for performance and patient care.

Organizations affect their employees' vaccine readiness: A self-perception theory perspective

Over the past 3 years, employees have constantly witnessed how their organizations have responded to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we hypothesize that employees' perceptions of the COVID-19 safety climate of their organization positively affect their vaccine readiness. To examine the underlying mechanisms of this effect, we use a self-perception theory lens. Thus, we hypothesize that an organization's COVID-19 safety climate affects employees' COVID-19 vaccine readiness through employees' adherence to COVID-19 guidelines. We conducted a time-lagged study over the time span of 1 year (N = 351) to test our hypotheses. In general, results support our hypotheses. In particular, results showed that perceived COVID-19 safety climate assessed at an early stage of the pandemic (April 2020, when no vaccines were available) predicted employees' COVID-19 vaccine readiness more than a year later. In line with self-perception theory, this effect was mediated by employees' adherence to COVID-19 guidelines. The present study provides theoretical insight into the underlying mechanisms of organizational climate on employees' attitudes. From a practical perspective, our results suggest that organizations are a powerful lever for promoting vaccine readiness.

Violence Prevention Climate and Health-Oriented Leadership in German Emergency Departments

Emergency departments (EDs) are high-risk environments for workplace violence. Research into techniques to prevent violence has less frequently explored the influence of leadership. This study aims to analyze the association of leadership with the prevention of violence using the concepts of health-oriented leadership (HoL) and the violence prevention climate (VPC). This quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted through online surveys between November 2021 and March 2022 across Germany. A sample of 370 doctors and nurses working in German EDs were recruited. Perceptions towards VPC and HoL were compared between groups divided according to profession and position using independent t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests. Separate multiple linear regression models for supervisors and employees analyzed the association between different profiles of HoL with VPC. Supervisors and employees showed significant differences in supervisor staff-care and VPC. Regression analysis demonstrated that supervisors' self-care and employees' assessment of supervisor's staff-care positively predicted all dimensions of VPC. This empirical study provides insights into the variable perceptions of different groups and the association of leadership profiles with the perceptivity of VPC. The results of this study can be used to emphasize the importance of HoL training for both employees and supervisors to improve communication and health-promoting behavior.

Organizational health climate as a precondition for health-oriented leadership: expanding the link between leadership and employee well-being

The link between leadership and employee well-being is long established. In particular, health-oriented leadership is discussed as a leadership style specifically promoting employee well-being. However, the preconditions of health-oriented leadership remain largely unexplored. From the perspective of conservation of resources theory, leaders can only provide resources when receiving some themselves. We propose that organizational health climate (OHC) is an important organization-based resource for a health-oriented leadership style. More specifically, we hypothesize that the relationship between OHC and employee job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion is mediated by health-oriented leadership. We thereby differentiate two levels of analysis: a within-team level and a between-team level. We examined 74 teams with 423 employees of childcare centers at three time points, each 6 months apart. By means of multilevel structural equation modeling, we found OHC to be a significant antecedent of health-oriented leadership at the between-team level. The relationship between OHC and employee job satisfaction was mediated by health-oriented leadership at the between-team level, but not at the within-team level. The relationship between OHC and employee exhaustion showed another pattern of relationships at the different levels of analysis, while it was not significantly mediated by health-oriented leadership. This indicates the value of differentiating between levels of analysis. We discuss the implications for theory and practice that can be drawn from our findings.

Service Employees' Mindfulness and Job Crafting amid COVID-19: The Roles of Resilience, Organizational Health Climate, and Health-Oriented Leadership

Due to changes in the work environment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, service employees' behavior, that proactively reshapes the content and meaning of work (i.e., job crafting), is increasingly important. We identified mindfulness as a key individual trait contributing to job crafting in the pandemic context. The purpose of our study was to examine the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting, and the moderating effects of perceived organizational health climate and health-oriented leadership on the mindfulness-resilience relationship. We administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean service employees after the onset of COVID-19 (January 20, 2020). Data for mindfulness, resilience, perceived organizational health climate, and health-oriented leadership were collected via participants' self-report in March, 2020. One month later (April, 2020), we obtained their self-ratings of job crafting. Results showed that resilience mediated the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting. The positive relationship between these two variables was more pronounced when perceived organizational health climate was high than when it was low. Perceived organizational health climate further moderated the indirect effect of mindfulness on job crafting through resilience.

Health-oriented leadership: Antecedents of leaders’ awareness regarding warning signals of emerging depression and burnout

Due to growing demands, there is an increase in depression and burnout causing sickness absence and early retirement. Detecting depression and burnout at an early stage is a crucial task for leaders to allow for early support and prevent more severe illnesses. Within the health-oriented leadership concept, awareness is the ability to recognize followers’ warning signals as a potential health risk. Although it is widely accepted that awareness is a precondition to taking appropriate action, it is yet unclear to what extent leaders recognize the warning signals of followers and which factors facilitate or impede awareness. In an experimental study ( N = 54) and a survey study ( N = 215) we examined antecedents of awareness in followers and leaders: (a) clarity of displayed warning signals in followers, (b) leaders’ stressors, (c) leaders’ autonomy. Even under favorable conditions, only about half of the leaders recognized warning signals as a health risk. Leaders showed lower awareness during times of high stress and low autonomy and when followers displayed less clear warning signals. Autonomy moderated the effect of stress (workload) on awareness, but there was no buffering effect as expected. The findings deepen the theoretical understanding of awareness and suggest that leaders need to know how their awareness may be impeded. We provide practical recommendations for human resource management on how leaders’ awareness can be fostered.

The Trickle-Down Effects of Inclusive Leadership on Employees’ Innovative Behavior: The Joint Moderating Effects of Vicarious Learning and Organizational Inclusion Climate

The supervisor-subordinate dyad has been well articulated in the framework of inclusive leadership and employee outcomes. Applying a multisource dataset from China, the present study develops a trickle-down model of inclusive leadership across three hierarchical levels (i.e., top managers, supervisors, and employees). Building on social learning theory and social exchange theory, the study found empirical support for the assumptions that both top management and supervisory inclusive leadership have a positive effect on employees’ innovative behavior. In addition, the findings support the proposition that supervisor's inclusive leadership mediates the effects of top manager's inclusive leadership on employees’ innovative behavior. The study also verified that vicarious learning and organizational inclusion climate jointly moderate the relationship between the top manager's inclusive leadership and the supervisor's inclusive leadership. The contribution, limitations, and future directions are also discussed.

Cohort difference in job environments: the mediating effect of organizational identification on the relationships between mindful leadership and self-spirituality

This paper aims to examine the effect of mindful leadership on employees' self-spirituality, and the mediating effect of organizational identification, and the moderating effect of cohort differences in machinery companies. This study collected data from three different periods. The result demonstrated that organizational identification mediated between mindful leadership and employees' self-spirituality, which boosted to deliver the peculiarity and attractiveness of their hardworking regarding personal capability. Besides, larger cohort differences negatively moderated between mindful leadership and employees' self-spirituality, and vice versa. The main dedication is the application of critical surveys depending on important supportive elements in the associated territory.

Caring for yourself and for others: team health climate and self-care explain the relationship between health-oriented leadership and exhaustion

Purpose

Health-oriented leadership is an emerging concept that is promising for better understanding how leaders can support employee well-being. However, there is uncertainty about the process through which health-oriented leadership relates to employee well-being. Advancing health-oriented leadership research, this study aims to examine employee self-care and the perceived team health climate as mediating mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a time-lagged study with three measurement points (NT1 = 335, NT2 = 134, NT2 = 113) to test these mechanisms.

Findings

The results show that health-oriented leadership at Time 1 positively relates to employee self-care and perceived team health climate at Time 2, which, in turn, are negatively associated with employee exhaustion at Time 3.

Originality/value

The indirect associations suggest that health-oriented leadership relates to employee well-being via the perceived team health climate and the individuals' self-care. By revealing an important mediating mechanism, this study contributes to the health-oriented leadership literature and can help organizations and leaders improve health promotion in organizations.

The effects of organizational climate on adherence to guidelines for COVID-19 prevention

Background

During the current pandemic, it is essential that individuals follow the COVID-19 guidelines (e.g., physical distancing) to slow down the spread of the new coronavirus. Organizations generally affect their employees' behavior in a wide range of areas, but can they also affect how strictly employees adhere to COVID-19 guidelines? To answer this question, the present study examined the impact of an organizational climate for preventing infectious diseases (OCID) on employees' adherence to COVID-19 guidelines both at work and in their private life.

Method

We used a two-wave longitudinal online survey with a final sample of N = 304 UK employees.

Results

Our results show that OCID during the first lockdown in the UK in April 2020 (T1) was positively linked to adherence to COVID-19 guidelines at work one month later (T2). We also found a relationship between OCID (T1) and adherence to guidelines in one's private life (T2) that was mediated through adherence to guidelines at work (T2).

Conclusion

These results highlight the pivotal role organizations play in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Security Providing Leadership: A Job Resource to Prevent Employees' Burnout

Leadership styles in work contexts play a role in employees' well-being, contributing to better health or, on the contrary, being a source of stress. In this study we propose that security providing leadership may be considered as a resource to prevent employees' job burnout. First, we examine the relationship between employees' perception of their leader's degree of security in providing leadership and the employees' degree of job-related burnout. Second, the underlying processes by which leaders as security providers exert their influence on burnout are analyzed with a focus on the mediating role of two variables: an organizational climate oriented to psychological safety and organizational dehumanization. A total of 655 Spanish employees (53.7% women) completed a paper-and-pencil self-report questionnaire. To recruit participants, we employed an exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling. Results, using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test hypotheses, show that security providing leadership was related negatively to burnout. Furthermore, psychological safety climate and organizational dehumanization mediated the relationship between security providing leadership and burnout. These findings support the attachment approach to leadership and open new avenues for creating better organizational environments. Security-providing leaders, by supporting employees and treating them in a personalized way, can enhance the psychological safety climate and prevent organizational dehumanization and consequent job burnout.

Do Organizational Health Climates and Leader Health Mindsets Enhance Employees' Work Engagement and Job Crafting Amid the Pandemic?

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many health- and stress-related symptoms among employees, surprisingly few studies have assessed the effect of a health-promoting organizational climate or leadership on employee work outcomes. To fill this gap, our research proposed and tested a moderated mediation model involving perceived organizational health climate (POHC), leader health mindset (LHM), work engagement, and job crafting. Our propositions were tested using two-wave data collected from 301 South Korean employees. As predicted, POHC was positively related to employees' job crafting, and this relationship was mediated by work engagement. Moreover, the positive relationship between POHC and work engagement and the indirect effect of POHC on job crafting through work engagement were more pronounced when LHM was high than when it was low. These findings support the job demands-resources model and social exchange theory and have implications for helping employees maintain their work attitudes and behavior in times of crisis.

Health-Oriented Leadership and Mental Health From Supervisor and Employee Perspectives: A Multilevel and Multisource Approach

The link between leadership and mental health at the workplace is well established by prior research. However, most of the studies have addressed this relationship from a single-source perspective. The aim of this study was to examine how supervisor and employee ratings of health-oriented leadership correspond to each other and which sources are predictive for employee mental health. We assessed data within 99 teams (headed by 99 supervisors) containing 713 employees in 11 different companies in Southern Germany. Supervisors and their staff completed questionnaires on the supervisors' health-oriented staff-care dimensions awareness, value of health and health behavior (Health-Oriented Leadership Scale, HoL) and current mental distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS). Hierarchical linear models revealed that supervisors' self-ratings were significantly related to their employees' ratings (at the team level) only on the health behavior dimension, but not on the health awareness and value of health dimensions. Also, supervisors rated themselves significantly higher on HoL compared to their employees. Employee ratings of HoL significantly predicted their own level of mental distress (direct within-level effect), whereas supervisor ratings of HoL did not predict employees' mental distress at the team level (direct cross-level effect). Supervisors' self-ratings of HoL did not influence the relationship between employee ratings of HoL and their mental distress on an individual level (cross-level interaction). These results highlight the complex relationship between multisource assessments of HoL and employee mental health, emphasizing the importance of subjective perception for mental health. Future studies should investigate under which conditions supervisor and employee ratings correspond to each other and are predictive for mental health at the workplace.

Job Demands-Resources theory and self-regulation: new explanations and remedies for job burnout

Background: High job demands and low job resources may cause job strain and eventually result in burnout. However, previous research has generally ignored the roles of time and self-regulation. Objectives: This theoretical article synthesizes the literature to propose a multilevel model that delineates how acute job strain translates into enduring and severe job burnout. Methods: We integrate self-regulation perspectives in job demands-resources (JD-R) theory to propose that short-term job strain and eventually enduring burnout is the result of consistently high job demands and low job resources - combined with failed self-regulation. Results: The model shows that when employees are confronted with increased job strain, they are more likely to use maladaptive self-regulation strategies, such as coping inflexibility and self-undermining. In addition, when job strain increases, employees are less likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies, such as job stress recovery and job crafting. It follows that when the job becomes more stressful, stable resources become more important. Organizational resources such as human resource practices and healthy leadership may help employees to regulate their short-term fatigue and avoid enduring burnout. Furthermore, key personal resources like emotional intelligence and proactive personality may help employees to recognize and regulate their fatigue in an effective way. Conclusion: The proposed model of burnout expands JD-R theory and offers important practical implications for the prevention and reduction of burnout.