Lack of sleep and the development of leader-follower relationships over time

Sleep and Military Leaders: Examining the Values, Beliefs, and Quality of Sleep and the Impact on Occupational Performance

INTRODUCTION

Sleep deprivation is rampant within the military population, and insufficient sleep can lead to physical and mental health problems impacting soldier's readiness and deployability. Past research has shown the importance of leadership's role in subordinates' sleep health. Understanding the values, beliefs, and quality of military leader sleep is essential to the development of effective interventions to optimize occupational performance and overall sleep health. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the military leaders' values, beliefs, and sleep quality and the impact on occupational performance. The authors aimed to (1) identify military leaders' sleep quality and beliefs; (2) explore the relationship between military leaders' sleep quality, beliefs and attitudes about sleep, and impact on occupational performance; and (3) examine the value leaders place on sleep for themselves and subordinates in relation to occupational performance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This observational, mixed-methods study design recruited a convenience sample of 109 Army active duty medical service members currently serving in a leadership role. Participants completed an electronic survey to include general demographic information and three self-report measures: the Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index, the Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep, and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire. Eleven participants completed the semi-structured qualitative interview focusing on sleep values and the impacts on performance. Univariate and multivariate regressions were performed for statistical analysis of the quantitative survey data, whereas thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative interview data. This study was approved by the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence Institutional Review Board.

RESULTS

Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated small-to-medium effect sizes (R2 = 0.355-0.559) for relationships between sleep quality, sleep beliefs, functional performance, and demographic variables. More specifically, military grade, position, use of alcohol, time in service, and gender were all found to contribute significantly to scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep Scale-16, and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire-10 (P < .05). Qualitative data resulted in three primary themes: (1) Poor sleep degrades performance, (2) sleep is a top priority, and (3) leaders have a responsibility for subordinates' sleep health.

CONCLUSIONS

This sample of military leaders was found to perceive themselves as poor-quality sleepers despite demonstrating more functional attitudes and beliefs about sleep and reporting normal-to-mild impairments in daily functioning as a result of daytime sleepiness. Furthermore, findings suggest that leaders' sleep quality and beliefs stand to be further improved, whereas their sleep values need to be consistently demonstrated to subordinates. With a clearer understanding of military leaders' values, beliefs, and sleep quality, future research could focus on implementing and developing holistically based and individualized sleep interventions intended to optimize performance and sleep health.

Sleepy and grumpy go hand in hand for US Navy Sailors

Study Objectives

The study explores how sleep, sleep-related practices, and behaviors, in addition to various demographic and occupational characteristics, are related to overall mood of US Navy sailors when they are underway.

Methods

Longitudinal assessment of US Navy sailors performing their underway duties (N = 873, 79.2% males, median age 25 years). Participants completed standardized questionnaires, wore wrist-worn actigraphs, and completed daily activity logs.

Results

Sailors who reported worse profile of mood states (POMS) total mood disturbance scores had shorter sleep duration, worse sleep quality, and more episodes of split sleep. The group with worse mood also reported more symptoms of excessive daytime sleepiness as well as more symptoms of insomnia. In addition to sleep results, sailors with worse mood also tended to be younger, more likely to use nicotine and tobacco products, and less likely to have an exercise routine when compared to sailors with better POMS scores. Finally, the group with worse POMS scores included more enlisted personnel, tended to work more hours per day, and were more likely to stand watch-especially on rotating watch schedules.

Conclusions

The results found significant associations between the sleep practices and mood of sailors aboard US Navy ships. Numerous other demographic and occupational factors were also strongly associated with mood. This paper is part of the Sleep and Circadian Rhythms: Management of Fatigue in Occupational Settings Collection.

The influence of sleep on job satisfaction: examining a serial mediation model of psychological capital and burnout

Introduction

This study draws on the conservation of resources theory to investigate whether the loss of sleep can trigger the loss of additional resources that are necessary for work.

Methods

Using cross-sectional design of 322 call center employees working at a government-owned public bank in South Korea, we test the study hypotheses using regression and bootstrapping indirect effects analyses.

Results

The results of analyses show that insufficient sleep increases employee burnout and that psychological capital mediates this relationship. We also find that insufficient sleep decreases job satisfaction via a serial mediation model such that insufficient sleep reduces psychological capital, which in turn increases burnout, and ultimately results in lower job satisfaction.

Discussion

The findings reinforce the previous assessment that although sleep is a non-work factor, its impact spills over to the workplace. Theoretically, this study goes beyond direct effect to uncover the underlying or mediating mechanisms that account for the impact of the sleep-burnout relationship and the sleep-job satisfaction relationship. For managers, the results highlight the significance of sleep to employees' overall health and well-being and thus underscore the need to foster a work culture that recognizes and prioritizes employee sleep needs.

The relationship between sleep quality and occupational well-being in employees: The mediating role of occupational self-efficacy

Objective

This study aimed to examine the impact of sleep quality on occupational well-being in employees by primarily focusing on the mediating role of occupational self-efficacy.

Methods

A total of 487 junior staff completed a set of questionnaires comprised Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale, Occupational Self-efficacy Scale, and occupational well-being measurements.

Results

The results revealed that both sleep quality and occupational self-efficacy were significantly correlated with occupational well-being. The structural equation modeling analysis and the bootstrap test indicated that occupational self-efficacy partially mediated the effect of poor sleep quality on occupational well-being.

Discussion

These findings expand upon existing research on the relationship between sleep quality and well-being among occupational workers, shed light on the correlation of poor sleep quality with occupational well-being, and are valuable in promoting the occupational well-being of employees.

How remote working increases the importance of positive leadership for employee vigor

Introduction

Leadership is essential for creating a healthy and happy work environment for employees. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, working remotely from home has become prevalent for many employees, which challenges leaders to reach out to their followers even if these followers are not physically at work. Drawing on positive psychology theories, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between positive leadership and psychological energy (i.e., vigor), and particularly the extent in which this relationship is affected by whether employees are working from home, as well as the tenure of the leader-follower relationship.

Methods

A two-wave time-lagged study design is used with a sample of 186 followers.

Results

Findings indicate that the effect of positive leadership on followers' vigor is especially strong when employees work from home, and even more so when leaders and followers have a long lasting work relationship.

Discussion

The study shows that positive leadership behaviors are positively related to employee vigor. Such positive leadership behaviors consist of praising follower's individual performance, personally thanking followers, cheering them up, and helping them with specified tasks.

Unbalanced, Unfair, Unhappy, or Unable? Theoretical Integration of Multiple Processes Underlying the Leader Mistreatment-Employee CWB Relationship with Meta-Analytic Methods

Although a litany of theoretical accounts exists to explain why mistreated employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), little is known about whether these mechanisms are complementary or mutually exclusive, or the effect of context on their explanatory strength. To address these gaps, this meta-analytic investigation tests four theoretically-derived mechanisms simultaneously to explain the robust relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWB: (1) a social exchange perspective, which argues that mistreated employees engage in negative reciprocal behaviors to counterbalance experienced mistreatment; (2) a justice perspective, whereby mistreated employees experience moral outrage and engage in retributive behaviors against the organization and its members; (3) a stressor-emotion perspective, which suggests that mistreated employees engage in CWBs to cope with their negative affect; and (4) a self-regulatory perspective, which proposes that mistreated employees are simply unable to inhibit undesirable behaviors. Moreover, we also examine whether the above model holds across cultures that vary on power distance. Our meta-analytic structural equation model demonstrated that all but the justice mechanism significantly mediated the relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWBs, with negative affect emerging as the strongest explanatory mechanism in both high and low power distance cultures. Given these surprising results, as the stressor-emotion perspective is less frequently invoked in the literature, this paper highlights not only the importance of investigating multiple mechanisms together when examining the leader mistreatment-employee CWB relationship, but also the need to develop more nuanced theorizing about these mechanisms, particularly for negative affect.

Effects of Sleep, Exercise, and Leadership Support on Resilience in Frontline Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the direct and interacting effects of personal and systemic factors that contribute to psychological distress among frontline healthcare workers (FHCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Data were collected using a hospital-wide, cross-sectional survey. A multivariable binary logistic regression and relative importance analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with screening positive for C19-distress.

RESULTS

A total of 1,005 (39.0%, 95%CI = 37.1-40.9%) out of 2,579 FHCWs met the pre-specified cutoff values for significant symptoms of C19-distress. Fewer sleep hours and lower perceptions of leadership support explained the majority of variance (19.4% relative variance explained [RVE]) in C19-distress, followed by team camaraderie (6.4% RVE), physical exercise (4.9% RVE), and engagement in hobbies (3.2% RVE).

CONCLUSION

These results underscore the importance of restorative behaviors as potential targets to help decrease distress and promote resilience in FHCWs.

The Role of Change in the Relationships Between Leader-Member Exchange/Coworker Exchange and Newcomer Performance: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach

This study examines whether and how the qualities of newcomers’ interpersonal relationships [i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX) and coworker exchange (CWX)] relate to their initial performance and how changes in the qualities of these relationships relate to the changes in performance. To test a latent growth model, we collected data from 230 newcomers at six time points over a 6-week period. The results showed that LMX quality is positively related to initial newcomer performance; however, changes in LMX quality are not statistically significantly related to changes in newcomer performance. In contrast, an increase in CWX quality is positively related to newcomer performance improvement, but the initial quality of CWX does not predict newcomer performance. Furthermore, newcomers’ psychological entitlement moderates the relationship between LMX quality and newcomer performance; newcomers’ conscientiousness moderates the relationship between increases in CWX quality and improvements in newcomer performance. The findings increase our understanding of the newcomer exchange relationship-performance link over time and suggest that future newcomer socialization research explore the initial level of and the changes in these relationships simultaneously.

Wellness-Centered Leadership: Equipping Health Care Leaders to Cultivate Physician Well-Being and Professional Fulfillment

These are challenging times for physicians. Extensive changes in the practice environment have altered the nature of physicians' interactions with patients and their role in the health care delivery system. Many physicians feel as if they are "cogs in the wheel" of austere corporations that care more about productivity and finances than compassion or quality. They often do not see how the strategy and plan of their organization align with the values of the profession. Despite their expertise, they frequently do not feel they have a voice or input in the operational plan of their work unit, department, or organization. At their core, the authors believe all of these factors represent leadership issues. Many models of leadership have been proposed, and there are a number of effective philosophies and approaches. Here, the authors propose a new integrative model of Wellness-Centered Leadership (WCL). WCL includes core skills and qualities from the foremost leadership philosophies along with evidence on the relationship between leadership and physician well-being and distills them into a single framework designed to cultivate leadership behaviors that promote engagement and professional fulfillment. The 3 elements of WCL are: care about people always, cultivate individual and team relationships, and inspire change. A summary of the mindset, behaviors, and outcomes of the elements of the WCL model is presented, and the application of the elements for physician leaders is discussed. The authors believe that learning and developing the skills that advance these elements should be the aspiration of all health care leaders and a foundational focus of leadership development programs. If cultivated, the authors believe that WCL will empower individual and team performance to address the current problems faced by health care organizations as well as the iterative innovation needed to address challenges that may arise in the decades to come.

Sleep and social relationships in healthy populations: A systematic review

Over the past decade, research linking sleep and social relationships has burgeoned. Researchers across the globe are trying to understand whether the quality and quantity of our social relationships matter for sleep, and vice versa. We conducted a systematic review of the literature, identifying over 200 relevant articles examining sleep and social relationships in healthy populations. Here, we summarize our findings by reviewing 1) links between sleep and broad social ties across the lifespan, and 2) links between sleep and specific social relationships identified in the literature search, including romantic relationships, family relationships, and work relationships. Taken together, the literature provides evidence that the quality and presence of social relationships, especially our closest relationships, play a role in how we sleep. Likewise, sleep appears to influence our social bonds. However, the majority of work is correlational, limiting conclusions about the directionality of these effects. We conclude by synthesizing the findings, considering the limitations of the present literature, and identifying key future directions for this emerging area of research.

Association of Burnout, Professional Fulfillment, and Self-care Practices of Physician Leaders With Their Independently Rated Leadership Effectiveness

IMPORTANCE

Although leadership behavior of physician supervisors is associated with the occupational well-being of the physicians they supervise, the factors associated with leadership behaviors are poorly understood.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the associations between burnout, professional fulfillment, and self-care practices of physician leaders and their independently assessed leadership behavior scores.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This survey study of physicians and physician leaders at Stanford University School of Medicine (n = 1924) was conducted from April 1 to May 13, 2019. The survey included assessments of professional fulfillment, self-valuation, sleep-related impairment, and burnout. Physicians also rated the leadership behaviors of their immediate physician supervisors using a standardized assessment. Leaders' personal well-being metrics were paired with their leadership behavior scores as rated by the physicians they supervised. All assessment scores were converted to a standardized scale (range, 0-10). Data were analyzed from October 20, 2019, to March 10, 2020.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Association between leaders' own well-being scores and their independently assessed leadership behavior.

RESULTS

Of 1924 physicians invited to participate, 1285 (66.8%) returned surveys, including 67 of 117 physician leaders (57.3%). Among these respondents, 651 (50.7%) were women and 729 (56.7%) were 40 years or older. Among the 67 leaders, 57 (85.1%) had their leadership behaviors evaluated by at least 5 physicians (median, 11 [interquartile range, 9-15]) they supervised. Overall, 9.8% of the variation in leaders' aggregate leadership behavior scores was associated with their own degree of burnout. In models adjusted for age and sex, each 1-point increase in burnout score of the leaders was associated with a 0.19-point decrement in leadership behavior score (β = -0.19; 95% CI, -0.35 to -0.03; P = .02), whereas each 1-point increase in their professional fulfillment and self-valuation scores was associated with a 0.13-point (β = 0.13; 95% CI, 0.01-0.26; P = .03) and 0.15-point (β = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.02-0.29; P = .03) increase in leadership behavior score, respectively. Each 1-point increase in leaders' sleep-related impairment was associated with a 0.15-point increment in sleep-related impairment among those they supervised (β = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.02-0.29; P = .03). The associations between leaders' well-being scores in other dimensions and the corresponding well-being measures of those they supervised were not significant.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

In this survey study, burnout, professional fulfillment, and self-care practices of physician leaders were associated with their independently assessed leadership effectiveness. Training, skill building, and support to improve leader well-being should be considered a dimension of leadership development rather than simply a dimension of self-care.

Insomnia: An Important Antecedent Impacting Entrepreneurs’ Health

Insomnia (and sleep deprivation) has an important impact on multiple outcomes such as individuals’ cognitive abilities, decision-making, and affect. In this paper, drawing from sleep research, we focus on entrepreneurs’ insomnia–health relationship and test a serial mediation model that considers entrepreneurs’ insomnia as an important predictor of their poor health. More specifically, we hypothesize that insomnia heightens entrepreneurs’ stress, which leads to increased negative affect, which ultimately undermines their health conditions. Using a sample of 152 Iranian entrepreneurs, we found support for our hypotheses as our results suggest that insomnia has a positive (and detrimental) effect on poor health (via more stress and negative affect). Contrary to research calls focused on stress reduction as one performance improvement mechanism, our results suggest sleep quality as a more effective mechanism for entrepreneurs to reduce their stress and to improve their health. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.