How and When Do Leaders Influence Employees' Well-Being? Moderated Mediation Models for Job Demands and Resources

How Transformational Leadership Affects the Off-work Recovery of Daily Personal Energy Resources via Work Engagement: Resource and Demand-based Pathways

This study focuses on the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship by investigating resource and demand pathways for daily off-work recovery and employee wellbeing (EWB). While previous research highlighted how transformational leadership energizes employees to engage at work, energy is a finite resource requiring daily restoration for EWB. Yet, how the leader's energizing effect relates to daily employees' recovery remains unknown. Following job demands-resource-recovery theory, we test two pathways that relate the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship to daily employee recovery: (a) Resource-based via resource-building, (b) demand-based via increased demands. Utilizing a 10-day, two daily measurement (N = 88) study, multilevel path analyses revealed: transformational leadership predicted via work engagement (b = .17, p < .05) role clarity (b = .56, p < .01), then positive (b = .39, p < .01), and negative work-nonwork spillover (b = -.38, p < .01). Positive work-nonwork spillover predicted recovery positively (b = .25, p < .01), negative work-nonwork spillover negatively (b = -.40, p < .01). Recovery predicted EWB for positive (b = .38, p < .01) and for negative (b = -.43, p < .01) affect. Work engagement predicted workload (b = .35, p < .01), further negative (b = .33, p < .01) and positive work-nonwork spillover (b = -.16, p < .01), hampering EWB. As one pathway effect might cancel the other, the main effect of transformational leadership on EWB was not significant in the integrative model (p > .05). Results highlight dark and bright sides of the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship regarding daily recovery.

Reviewing the influence of positive leadership on worker well-being: A comprehensive analysis

The study provides a review of existing empirical studies on the impact of positive leadership on worker well-being. The aim it to integrate current knowledge and provide directions for future research. The study analyses the content of 118 articles retrieved mainly from Google Scholar and Scopus database published between 2004 and 2022. Findings revealed that most of the studies are atheoretical with the dominant theory applied being conservation of resource theory. Furthermore, most of the studies were cross-sectionally designed, used convenient sampling and self-reported questionnaire. A conceptual framework is presented which synthesizes findings from prior works and shows the various dimensions of positive leadership practices and worker well-being. Additionally, a comprehensive future research agenda for theoretical and empirical advancement is suggested. The study offers a comprehensive framework that synthesizes and integrates the existing literature on positive leadership and worker well-being. The findings offer researchers in leadership a common platform for discourse.

The Impact of Illegitimate Tasks on Volunteer Participation: The Perspective of Psychological Capital

How do illegitimate tasks in volunteering affect volunteer participation? Previous research has focused only on the unidimensional effects of illegitimate tasks on volunteer participation. This study used the Job Demands-Resources model to investigate the multidimensional effects of illegitimate tasks on volunteer participation and the potential mechanisms of the effects. Based on three waves of survey data from 1768 Chinese volunteers, we found that illegitimate tasks negatively affect volunteer attitudes and volunteer outcomes by reducing volunteers' psychological capital. This study develops a mediated model about the effects of illegitimate tasks on volunteer attitudes and outcomes. This study also makes related recommendations, such as asking volunteer organizations to offer stress-coping courses and encouraging volunteers to share their personal volunteering experiences.

First, Be a Good Citizen: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Well-Being at Work and the Moderating Role of Leadership Styles

The study investigates the effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on well-being at work. The study further examines the moderating role of people and task-focused leadership styles between OCB on well-being at work. Individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) and organizational-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) will also be analyzed. A quantitative study was conducted and convenient sampling was adopted in selecting respondent workers (n = 200) in different Portuguese organizations. The results show that OCBs positively and significantly influence well-being at work. The strength of individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) on well-being at work is stronger than that of organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO). Contrary to expectations, the relationship between leadership styles and well-being was not statistically significant, offering possibilities for discussion regarding the central importance usually attributed to leadership in the organizational context. However, leadership styles have a moderating effect between OCB and well-being at work, except when the employee adopts OCBO and the leadership style is people-oriented. The present study is innovative because it positions OCB as an antecedent in the relationship with well-being at work and investigates the moderating role of leadership styles in the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and well-being.

The Influence of Leadership on Employees' Work-nonwork Interface and Wellbeing: A Scoping Review

Many current working conditions are characterized by increasing blurred boundaries between work and nonwork with spillover that impact employees' and recovery processes and wellbeing. Research, although emerging, considers these processes in the leadership-wellbeing relationship insufficiently. The main aim of this study, therefore, was to enhance our understanding of the role of leadership on employee's work-nonwork interface and wellbeing. To address these processes adequately, longitudinal research is most appropriate. To our best knowledge, no review exists that could inform longitudinal studies on the leadership-employee wellbeing relationship with a focus on spillover and recovery processes. Following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews, we apply a narrative synthesis of 21 identified studies to organize the research landscape. We make three main contributions: First, we adopt an integrated resource-demands based process perspective and expand the leadership-employee wellbeing relationship by including spillover and recovery. Second, we map the used theoretical approaches and analyzed research gaps. Third, we offer a list of the issues and potential remedies of applied methodologies to orient further research. Results show, that while work-nonwork research is predominantly approached from a negative conflict-based view, research focused more on positive than on negative leadership. We identify two broad categories of investigated mechanisms, namely bolstering/hampering mechanisms, and buffering/strengthening mechanisms. Findings also highlight the importance of personal energy resources and therefore call for more attention to affect-driven theories. The identified predominance of the IT and healthcare sectors and of working parents warrants more representative research. We offer recommendations to advance future research both theoretically and methodologically.

Leaders Condition the Work Experience: A Test of a Job Resources-Demands Model Invariance in Two Countries

Aim(s). This two-wave study examines how transformational and laissez-faire leadership affect role overload and conflict and subsequent outcomes, including anxiety and intention to leave the organization. Background. In today’s healthcare sector, promoting health among employees is more relevant than ever. Health-promoting leadership styles, such as transformational leadership, can positively affect staff well-being, but research on laissez-faire leadership is particularly sparse, though it is believed to be detrimental. Past research suggests that leadership conditions work experiences and can exacerbate or mitigate role stressors that result in individual outcomes. Method(s). Questionnaires were administered to nurses in the USA (n = 208) and Spain (n = 220), with a five- and eight-week separation, respectively. Results. Transformational leadership has a negative and laissez-faire leadership has a positive relationship with adverse outcomes. Furthermore, role overload and conflict mediate the relationship between leadership styles and outcomes. Conclusion(s). The study provides incremental evidence of the negative implications of laissez-faire leadership compared with the positive implications of transformational leadership on outcomes via role stressors as motivational mechanisms. Implications for Nursing Management. Learning about the medium-term implications of leadership styles on stressors and health-related outcomes would enrich opportunities for leadership training in organizations.

High performance work system and transformational leadership: Revisiting and questioning their implications for health-related wellbeing

Employee wellbeing represents a profound management challenge for both leaders and HR professionals, and both transformational leadership (TL) and high performance work system (HPWS) are assumed to play important roles in tackling this challenge. However, we know little about their unique and relative importance in promoting wellbeing. To shed light on this methodologically, theoretically and practically important issue, we draw mainly on leadership substitutes theory. Based on a comprehensive mediation model we examine whether HPWS substitutes the assumed relationships between TL and employee emotional exhaustion. Our study answers to three important calls for research: to examine the joint effects of leadership and HPWS, to examine their health-related impact, and to pursue more theory contesting research in management studies. Based on data from 308 white collar employees working under 76 middle-managers in five Finnish organizations our study points to the incompleteness of previous siloed research on both TL and HPWS, sheds new light on their relationships with wellbeing, and suggests ways to develop both TL and HPWS theory, thus providing important guidance for future research on their effects.

The Indirect Role of Passive-Avoidant and Transformational Leadership through Job and Team Level Stressors on Workplace Cyberbullying

Research on workplace cyberbullying (WCB) is still scarce and needs verification. This study addressed the indirect influence of positive and negative leadership on WCB via perceived role stressors and negative team climate. The main goal is to test the applicability of the work environment hypothesis and job demands-resources model for WCB on a cross-sectional sample of n = 583 workers in Germany (n = 334) and Spain (n = 249). We tested multiple mediation models, and findings revealed that negative (passive-avoidant) leadership increased role and team stressors and thereby WCB exposure, whereas positive (transformational) leadership decreased the same stressors and thereby reduced WCB exposure. No cross-cultural differences were found, indicating portability of the results. This study highlights the explanatory factors for WCB at individual and team level and emphasizes the role of managers as shapers of the work environmental antecedents of WCB in the emergent digitalized working world. Theoretical implications and future research avenues are discussed.

Authentic leadership and personal and job demands/resources: A person-centered approach and links with work-related subjective well-being

The job demands-resources theory considers an open group of personal and job demands and resources. Thus, it allows us to include personal resources not yet covered (i.e., vigor at work) or less explored (i.e., emotional abilities), as well as personal demands not yet explored (i.e., overcommitment). Additionally, from this theory, it is proposed that leaders may influence employee wellbeing. Therefore, of particular interest is to analyze positive leadership styles, such as authentic leadership (AL). This study addresses three research objectives: 1) to identify profiles of employees from a person-centered approach, combining personal resources (self-perception of emotional abilities, vigor at work and self-efficacy) and personal demands (overcommitment) with job resources and demands; 2) to analyze the relation of the identified profiles with indicators of work-related subjective well-being; and 3) to acknowledge whether the AL style determines the pertaining to a profile probability. A large heterogeneous sample of Spanish employees (N = 968) responded to a questionnaire. Data were analyzed by adopting a person-centered approach using latent profile analysis. The results revealed five patterns of job and individual characteristics: Profile 5 (very low personal resources, and low job resources and demands); Profile 4 (low resources and high demands); Profile 3 (mid-level personal resources, high job resources and low demands); Profile 2 (high personal resources, mid-level job resources and high demands); and Profile 1 (high resources and low demands). Analyses showed that workers differed significantly in well-being depending on their profile membership, with Profile 1 having the highest well-being. Profiles that yielded the worst outcomes were Profile 4 and Profile 5, especially the latter. Finally, the results indicated that AL increased the probability that a profile would show a high well-being level.

Facing the Post-Pandemic Challenges: The Role of Leadership Effectiveness in Shaping the Affective Well-Being of Healthcare Providers Working in a Hybrid Work Mode

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to the medical industry, including hybrid work, in which specialists can perform some of their duties remotely, in addition to physical contact with patients and their teams. Hybrid work provides opportunities, but also generates difficulties (e.g., accurate long-distance diagnosis); therefore, there is a need to ensure the well-being of healthcare workers, especially in the context of leadership strategies. As there is little research on leadership practices in remote and hybrid medical worker management, this study analyses the relationship between certain behavioural strategies and competencies of leaders and the affective well-being of hybrid employees. The research was conducted among a group of employees (N = 135) from seven countries who provide healthcare in a hybrid model. The correlations between the variables showed the statistical significance of all leadership strategies introduced into the model and focused on building involvement (employee empowerment and team orientation), creating a shared vision, defining clear goals and strategies, promoting adaptability (change management, promotion of organisational learning and patient focus), managing consistency through shared values, agreement and effective coordination, as well as competencies such as communicativeness, credibility, self-development and digital readiness. Despite the significance of all the relationships, the linear regression showed that the variability of affective well-being was explained mainly by the adaptability leadership strategy. The results of the study expand the knowledge on the competencies of healthcare leaders, and shed new light on the management of medical employees performing remote and hybrid work. Because such research into well-being has not been published to date, the analysis begins an important discussion on redefining leadership in the healthcare sector, taking into account the digital transformation.

How does multidimensional R&D investment affect green innovation? Evidence from China

Under the background of green development, multidimensional R&D investment and institutional quality have injected strong power into green innovation. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2009 to 2018, this study examines the threshold effect of R&D and R&D personnel input on China's green innovation capability from three perspectives, namely, political institutional quality, economic institutional quality, and legal institutional quality. The core study results show that the influence of R&D on China's green innovation capability has an obvious double-threshold effect based on institutional quality. This study expands the research on the influencing factors of green innovation and the influence effect of multidimensional R&D investment and provides a theoretical basis for regional green innovation management. In addition, the research results of this study provide a reference for accurately formulating regional green innovation capability promotion strategies.

Sustainable Leadership, Environmental Turbulence, Resilience, and Employees' Wellbeing in SMEs

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and contingency theories of leadership, this study aims to investigate how sustainable leadership (SL) influences employees' wellbeing (WB) through employee resilience (ER) and to examine the moderating effect of environmental turbulence (ET) on the “sustainable leadership-employees' wellbeing” relationship. Data were collected from 593 employees and 373 supervisors adopting two-wave design among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. The authors used structural equation modeling to empirically test the hypothesized model in this study. The research shows that SL is significantly related to the employees' WB in SMEs. Regarding mediating effect, SL also indirectly influences employees' WB through ER. Moreover, the impact of SL on employees' WB becomes more prominent in the presence of lower ET. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no prior study is available about the integrated relationship of SL, ER, ET, and employee WB.

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.

Transformational Leadership, HRM practices and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of personal stress, anxiety, and workplace loneliness

The present research investigates the crucial role of "Transformational Leadership (TFL)" on employees' "anxiety", "personal stress", and "workplace loneliness", and finally on employees' "burnout". Moreover, this survey investigates the moderating role of "HRM practices" in the relationship between TFL and burnout. For the needs of the research, "Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM)" was conducted on a sample of 459 Greek "customer-contact employees" based on thirteen hotels during the "COVID-19 pandemic". First, the findings uncover the dynamic of TFL in reducing all three stressors, namely "personal financial stress"; "anxiety"; and "workplace loneliness", thus prohibiting employees' "burnout". Moreover, the study underscores the moderating role of "HRM practices" in strengthening the negative relationship between TFL and "burnout". Overall, the findings provide additional evidence on the process through which "HRM practices" interact with "TFL", "job stressors", and employees' "burnout", a vital knowledge for HRM professionals and hotels' managers.

The Mediating Effects of Work Characteristics on the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Employee Well-Being: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Evidence points to an indirect relationship between transformational leadership (TFL) and employee well-being, and numerous work characteristics have been identified as mediators. However, the relative mediating effect of different types of job resources and job demands on the TFL-well-being relationship remains unclear, rendering it impossible to determine which ones are the most influential. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relative mediation potential of different work characteristics in the TFL-well-being relationship in multiple three-level meta-analytical structural equation models of 243 samples. Based on the JD-R Model, this study extends this theoretical framework by suggesting TFL as a predisposing variable that influences both job resources and job demands, leading to changes in indicators of both positive and negative employee well-being. The results show that, while all the examined job resources and demands mediated the TFL-well-being relationship, organizational resources were identified as the strongest mediators. Furthermore, job demands had a strong mediating effect on the relationship between TFL and negative well-being, while job resources more strongly mediated TFL and positive well-being. We present a differentiated picture of how transformational leaders can influence their employees' well-being at the workplace, providing valuable knowledge for future research and practice.

Perceived Decrease in Workplace Security Since the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Importance of Management Styles and Work-Related Attitudes

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has reduced the sense of security of people in everyday life. The efforts of managers in the workplace to minimize the health risks and economic damage, however, can provide the employees with a greater sense of security. The aim of this study was to identify the types of workplace responses to the pandemic outbreak with respect to the characteristics of employees and their employers accomplishing the differences in subjective sense of workplace security before the pandemic and during the outbreak. Three hundred and thirty-seven Polish employees completed an online survey during the first 2 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Using the cluster analysis, we identified four subgroups of employees differing in their sense of workplace security, work-related psychological factors, and perceived management styles of their supervisors. Employees led by developers and executive managers sustained a high sense of work security and positive attitude to work, while those led by compromisers and deserter managers suffered from the highest drop of subjective security. In this study, we proposed how employees can be protected from overreactions and unnecessary panic in a time of global crisis by virtue of the psychological competences of their supervisors and employers.

Ressourcen und Anforderungen (ReA) in der Arbeitswelt: Entwicklung und erste Validierung eines Fragebogens

Dieser Beitrag in der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation (GIO) stellt mit dem ReA Fragebogen ein umfassendes und branchenunabhängiges Analysetool zur Erfassung von Anforderungen und Ressourcen in Organisationen vor. Um die Gesundheit von Mitarbeitenden zu fördern und somit stressbedingten Fehlzeiten entgegenzuwirken, benötigen Organisationen geeignete Instrumente, um Anforderungen und Ressourcen zu identifizieren, um anschließende geeignete Maßnahmen zur Reduktion der Anforderungen sowie zur Stärkung der Ressourcen von Mitarbeitenden ableiten zu können. Basierend auf dem Job Demands-Resources (JDR) Modell und einer umfassenden Literaturrecherche zu relevanten Anforderungen und Ressourcen wurde ein Fragebogen entwickelt und überprüft. Faktorenanalytische Auswertungen in zwei Studien mit insgesamt 1600 Teilnehmenden bestätigen die angenommene Struktur des Instruments. Zudem zeigen sich in Übereinstimmung mit dem JDR Modell positive Zusammenhänge zwischen Ressourcen und Arbeitsengagement sowie Anforderungen und emotionaler Erschöpfung und ein negativer Zusammenhang zwischen Ressourcen und emotionaler Erschöpfung. Der mögliche Einsatz des Fragebogens zur Gesundheits-Prävention und im Rahmen der Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastungen in Organisationen wird diskutiert.

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.

Positive Influence of Role Ambiguity on JD-R Motivational Process: The Moderating Effect of Performance Recognition

Most previous research has shown the negative influence of role ambiguity on employes’ motivational process. This has led to role ambiguity being perceived as a main hindrance demand in the workplace, with a negative effect on the Job Demands Resources (JD-R) model’s motivational process. Recent theories propose that job demands can be perceived by employes as a challenge, rather than a hindrance. However, there is little evidence on which elements of the organizational context shape this perception. The objective of this study is to elucidate the possible effect of performance recognition from the team leader on employes’ interpretation of role ambiguity as a hindrance or a challenge. Data were obtained from 706 employes of a multinational company headquartered in Almería, Spain. Results confirmed that performance recognition moderates the effects of role ambiguity: specifically, performance recognition changes the effect of role ambiguity on engagement from negative to positive and reduces role ambiguity’s negative influence on extra-role behaviors.