The crossover of psychological distress from leaders to subordinates in teams: The role of abusive supervision, psychological capital, and team performance

Leader workaholism and subordinates' psychological distress: The moderating role of justice climate

Leader workaholism, characterized by an excessive drive to work long hours, is prevalent among organizational leaders. Its impact on subordinates' mental health warrants examination. This study investigated the direct relationship between leader workaholism and subordinates' psychological distress. Drawing on substitutes for leadership theory, it also assessed the buffering effects of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice climates in this relationship. Data from an online survey of 40 leaders and 200 subordinate employees revealed a positive correlation between leader workaholism and subordinates' psychological distress. However, the procedural and interactional justice climates negatively moderated this relationship, whereas the distributive justice climate did not. This disparity may result from the strong link between distributive justice climate and specific, objective outcomes. The study enhances understanding of the adverse effects of leader workaholism on employee psychological health and suggests organizational strategies, such as fostering procedural and interactional justice climates, to mitigate these effects.

[Development and validation of the University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health leadership checklist among occupational health specialists]

OBJECTIVES

Recently, occupational health specialists (OHS) are expected to exert leadership to develop high-quality occupational health activities. This study aimed to develop and investigate the reliability and validity of a scale to measure leadership preparation among OHS (The University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health [TOMH] Leadership Checklist; TLC).

METHODS

Based on literature reviews and interviews among OHS, we created potential items consisting of 54 items with six factors (10 items for self-awareness, 10 items for situational awareness, 9 items for vision, 12 items for mindset, 3 items for performance of one's duties, and 10 items for relationship-building). An online survey was conducted with 300 OHS in Japan to verify the scale's reliability and validity.

RESULTS

Consequent to the exploratory factor analysis, using the principal factor method and promax rotation, 51 items across the following five factors were identified; "self-awareness", "situational awareness", "vision", "mindset", and "performance of one's duties". The confirmatory factor analysis showed good fit indices; CFI = 0.877, SRMR = 0.050, and RMSEA = 0.072. Cronbach's α ranged from 0.93-0.96. Additionally, the scores of the TLC were significantly positively correlated with work engagement, job satisfaction, and self-efficacy; contrastingly, they were significantly negatively correlated with psychological distress (p < .05). Furthermore, the participants who had experience leadership without authority indicated significantly higher scores of the TLC and its subscales than those who did not (p < .001).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The newly developed TLC appeared to have acceptable levels of reliability and validity. It would be beneficial for OHS to show good leadership.

Crossover of Engagement Among Academic Staff and Students During COVID-19

Purpose

Globally, the pandemic had adverse consequences on the engagement and overall well-being of individuals. From a positive psychological perspective, this study drew on processes of social exchange, Kahn's theory on personal engagement and crossover theory, to explore the impact of mutual influences among academic staff and students on the engagement of both parties. Subsequently, the study explored the positive outcomes of engagement for both academic staff and students.

Participants and Methods

Purposive, non-probability sampling was used, and cross-sectional data were collected through electronic surveys. The sample consisted of a total of 1594 students who were nested within 160 academic staff members.

Results

Findings highlighted the influence of interpersonal factors such as high student leader-member exchange on student engagement and the impact of students' lack of reciprocity on the emotional engagement of academic staff. Findings further revealed that student engagement was positively related to a deep-learning approach and negatively related to a surface-learning approach. Furthermore, this study found a positive significant association between the emotional engagement and the psychological well-being of academic staff.

Conclusion

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and to reduce the negative psychological and behavioural challenges resulting from the pandemic, this research intended to inform policy-makers in higher education of the impact that mutual influences among academic staff and students have on their engagement and the benefits of engagement in cultivating a culture of life-long learning among students and improving the psychological well-being of academic staff.

The hot and the cold in destructive leadership: Modeling the role of arousal in explaining leader antecedents and follower consequences of abusive supervision versus exploitative leadership

Due to its devastating consequences, research needs to theoretically and empirically disentangle different sub-types of destructive leadership. Based on concepts derived from aggression research distinguishing re- and proactive aggression, we provide a process model differentiating abusive supervision and exploitative leadership. High versus low arousal negative affect is installed as the central mediating factor determining (1) whether perceived goal-blockage (leadership antecedents) leads to abusive supervision versus exploitative leadership and (2) whether a specific leadership behavior leads to active versus passive follower behavior (leadership consequence). Further, theoretical anchoring of individual and contextual moderators onto the model's process paths is provided and exemplary hypotheses for concrete moderation effects are deduced. Based on the provided process model, we highlight four recommendations to facilitate process-based construct differentiation in future research on destructive leadership. To precisely understand the differences and commonalities in different forms of destructive leadership will ultimately enable custom-tailored inter- and prevention.

Plain Language Summary

Negative leadership—also named “destructive” leadership—has very bad effects on followers and organizations. There are not just one, but many forms of destructive leadership and it is important to understand where different sub-types come from (i.e., to understand their antecedents) and which specific effect they have (i.e., to understand their consequences). In this paper, we focus on better understanding two forms of destructive leadership, namely abusive supervision and exploitative leadership. These two forms are similar to the two main forms of aggression. Abusive supervision is similar to reactive aggression, an impulsive “hot blooded” form of aggression. Exploitative leadership is similar to proactive aggression, a premeditated “cold blooded” form of aggression. We explain the parallels between the two forms of aggression and the two forms of leadership and provide a model which allows to predict when one versus the other form of leadership occurs and to which follower behavior they lead. An important factor in this model is the physiological characteristic of the emotional reaction to an event (i.e., arousal). An emotional reaction can be high in arousal; for instance, anger is a high arousal negative emotional reaction. On the contrary, boredom, for instance, is a low arousal negative emotional reaction. Dependent on whether both a leader and a follower react to a negative event (e.g., not getting what they want, being treated badly by others) with high or low arousal, their behavior will be different. We explain how this mechanism works and how it can help us to better predict leaders' and followers' behavior. We also outline how individual characteristics of the leader and follower and characteristics of their environment and context interact with arousal and their behavior.

Leaders' Role in Shaping Followers' Well-Being: Crossover in a Sample of Nurses

The link between well-being at work and leadership has received considerable attention. Leaders have the power to influence followers not only due to formal position, but also their positive behaviors could reinforce the followers' positive working experience. Following the crossover model (Westman, 2001), this study investigates whether leaders' work-related positive psychological states (i.e., work engagement) cross over to those of the followers (i.e., work engagement and job satisfaction) through the mediation of the latter's perception of transformational leadership. We used MPlus 8 to test two multilevel mediations in a sample of 1505 nurses nested in 143 groups led by as many leaders (87.19% of nurses and 56.50% of head nurses of the entire population). Results show that while there is not a crossover of leader work engagement to nurse work engagement, manager work engagement can cross over to nurse job satisfaction, enhancing their well-being through transformational leadership behaviors. This study adds further insights both on crossover theory and on the importance of leaders in expanding and transferring resources to followers at work. Fostering work engagement at a managerial level in the healthcare sector could be the driver to facilitate the well-being of nurses at work, address negative outcomes, and promote positive ones.

Abusive supervision: a systematic literature review

The interest generated by abusive supervision among researchers can be gauged from the fact that more than 140 articles on abusive supervision have been published by leading journals in the last five years alone. However, a comprehensive understanding of the same is lacking. As a result, we systematically reviewed 273 articles on abusive supervision published between 2000 and 2022. This enabled us to present five interrelated aspects of abusive supervision literature. First, we focus on the definitional issues associated with abusive supervision. Second, we examine two widely used abusive supervision scales. Third, we review and critique different research designs utilized in abusive supervision studies. Fourth, we look at the key theories underpinning abusive supervision research and map the nomological network of abusive supervision. Fifth, we suggest novel avenues for theoretical advancement. In sum, we endeavored to portray a detailed picture of research on abusive supervision.

When Your Boss Is Under Pressure: On the Relationships Between Leadership Inconsistency, Leader and Follower Strain

It is widely acknowledged that leadership is crucial for follower health. Under stress, positive leader behaviors such as transformational leadership may decrease and the risk of negative behaviors such as abusive leadership may increase. Followers experience these discrepancies in leadership between routine and stressful periods as inconsistent. While positive and negative leadership is generally associated with follower strain, inconsistency may be stressful by itself, because it entails insecurity and unpredictability in the leader-follower relationship. We suggest that the level of perceived inconsistency and volatility in leaders' behavior across situations is an additional risk factor for follower health. Moreover, we expect perceived inconsistency to be stronger when leaders are strained. This survey study with N = 304 employees examines the relationships between leadership inconsistency and leader as well as follower strain from a followers' perspective. Participants rated their leaders' transformational and abusive leadership separately for routine and stressful conditions, their leaders' strain and their own strain. Employees who experienced stronger discrepancies in leadership between routine and stressful conditions, i.e., more inconsistency, experienced more strain. Moreover, from a followers' perspective, inconsistencies were stronger when leaders were strained. The findings provide evidence that leadership is less stable and consistent than generally assumed and that inconsistency is an additional risk factor. Leader strain may threaten the consistency of leadership and thereby negatively affect follower health.

Does Self-Care Make You a Better Leader? A Multisource Study Linking Leader Self-Care to Health-Oriented Leadership, Employee Self-Care, and Health

Leadership plays an important role in employee well-being. In light of a growing research interest in leaders’ resources as determinants of healthy leadership, it is not yet clear how leaders’ behavior regarding their own health (self-care) may trickle down to employees. Drawing on Conservation of Resources Theory and the model of Health-Oriented Leadership, this study tests two mechanisms through which employees may benefit from self-caring leaders: (a) through staff care, that is, concern for their employees’ health (improved leadership hypothesis); and (b) through a direct relationship between leaders’ and employees’ self-care (role-modeling hypothesis). In turn, both staff care and employee self-care would relate positively to employee health. Multilevel path models based on a sample of N = 46 supervisors and 437 employees revealed that leader self-care was positively related to leader-rated staff care at Level 2, which was positively related to employee-rated staff care at Level 1. In turn, employee-rated staff care was positively related to employee health. The findings support the improved leadership hypothesis and underline the importance of leader self-care as a determinant of healthy leadership.

Workplace Psychological Distress: A Concept Analysis

BACKGROUND

Workplace psychological distress (WPD) significantly impacts employees' mental and physical well-being. However, WPD has not been well-defined in the literature as a concept. This concept analysis aims to clarify the concept of WPD and promote the use of the term in occupational health nursing research.

METHODS

Strategies introduced by Walker and Avant's conceptual analysis method will be utilized to conceptualize WPD and its impact on employees. A literature search was conducted using Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Business Source Complete, and APA PsycArticles. The keyword search included the terms "workplace" AND "employee" AND "psychological distress."

RESULTS

Antecedents of WPD are an increase in job demands, lack of control, low support, and workplace bullying. Defining attributes for WPD are extreme fatigue, role conflict, and time pressures. Consequences of WPD were identified as mental disorders, physical disorders, and loss in productivity. This concept was further illustrated using a model, borderline, and contrary case.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION

Identifying signs of WPD is of great importance in caring for employees in the workplace. Occupational health nurses can use information obtained from a workplace assessment to develop policies, implement well-being programs, and provide employee referrals.

The mediating effect of psychological capital on the relationship between psychological stress and distress among chinese nursing students: a cross-sectional study

Background

With the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the Chinese government took measures to prevent and control the spread of the virus. In-person teaching was replaced by distance learning, which was an unknown challenge for students. In this context, little is known about the perceived distress of nursing students and the relationship between psychological capital, perceived distress, and psychological stress. This study examined the relationship between psychological capital, psychological distress, and perceived stress, and the mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship between perceived stress and psychological distress among nursing students.

Methods

This cross-sectional survey was conducted between January and December 2020 using a convenience sampling method involving 359 undergraduate and specialist nursing students at a tertiary hospital in Shandong Province. Standardised instruments were used to measure psychological capital, psychological stress, and perceived stress. We used SPSS 24.0 and PROCESS macro to analyse the data.

Results

There was a statistically significant difference in perceived stress among students based on whether they liked the nursing profession (P < 0.01). Relative to nursing college students, undergraduates experienced significantly higher levels of perceived stress (P < 0.01). Nevertheless, there were no significant differences in perceived stress according to gender, place of residence, and being an only child. Psychological distress was positively correlated (r = 0.632, p < 0.001) with perceived stress (r =-0.662, p < 0.001), whereas it was negatively correlated with psychological capital. Psychological capital played a potential mediating role in the relationship between psychological distress and perceived stress.

Conclusions

Psychological distress was negatively correlated with psychological capital, and positively correlated with perceived stress. Mediation analyses indicated that psychological capital partially mediated the relationship between perceived stress and psychological distress. Educators should therefore heed students’ perceived stress and develop appropriate mental health counselling programmes for students in the curriculum that could help them reduce their psychological distress. In clinical practice, nursing managers must take effective measures, such as skills training, to improve the psychological capital of nursing students and reduce the negative impact of their psychological distress.

The Relationship between Organizational Environment and Perpetrators’ Physical and Psychological State: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Although job-related work environment studies found associations to workplace bullying perpetration, little work with longitudinal designs has been conducted on broader organizational measures. Such studies could help design effective interventions for perpetration. Using a three-wave longitudinal design and drawing on cognitive activation theory, we investigated whether organizational trust and justice predicted perpetration six months later. The sample consisted of 2447 employees from Spain and Turkey from various industries, such as services, manufacturing, and education. We also investigated whether physical and psychological health explained the relationship between organizational trust, justice, and perpetration. The results indicated that, in three months, organizational justice negatively predicted psychological and physical health deterioration, while unexpectedly, organizational trust positively predicted the same. Health conditions did not predict perpetration, in three months, while organizational conditions did not predict perpetration directly or indirectly in six months. Assessing and improving organizational trust and justice practices may help employee health improve over time. As organizational trust, justice, and health status are significantly related to current perpetration incidents, assessments of these subjects may be instrumental in identifying possible current perpetration phenomena.

Interrupting the crossover effect of leader's role overload on employee's negative affect: the moderating role of self-concordance goal

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to examine the crossover effect of leader's role overload on employee's negative affect. More importantly, the stuy will identify the buffering role of self-concordance goal on the relationship between leader's role overload and employee's negative affect.

Design/methodology/approach

The study builds the crossover impact of leader's role overload on employee's negative affect as well as the moderating effect of self-concordance goal. By a two-wave and paired data from 51 leaders and 225 employees, the study examines the hypothesis using cross-level analysis.

Findings

Results show that leader's role overload tends to reduce negative affect for employees who pursue high-level self-concordance goal and increase negative affect for employees who pursue low-level self-concordance goal.

Practical implications

It is important for employees to get rid of negative affect in the workplace. The study informs managers the benefits of pursuing self-concordance goals in helping employees alleviate the negative effect of leader's role overload.

Originality/value

Findings of the present study can enrich the literature of the crossover process from leader to employee and offer management strategy for enterprises about how to buffer the damaging effect of leader's role overload on employees.

Job insecurity and innovative work behaviour: A moderated mediation model of intrinsic motivation and trait mindfulness

Research has disregarded the processes and boundary conditions associated with the effects of job insecurity on innovative work behaviour. Combining the job demands-resources and the self-determination perspectives, the present study develops and tests a first-stage moderated mediation model that identifies intrinsic motivation as a key mechanism accounting for a negative effect of job insecurity on innovative behaviour and trait mindfulness as a buffer against the detrimental impact of job insecurity on intrinsic motivation and, indirectly, innovative work behaviour. Two time-lagged studies-a two-wave study of 138 employees from Canadian firms and a three-wave study of 157 employees from US firms-were conducted to test the hypothesized model. Supporting our predictions, intrinsic motivation mediated a negative relationship between job insecurity and innovative work behaviour. Moreover, high levels of trait mindfulness were observed to attenuate the negative relationship of job insecurity with intrinsic motivation and, indirectly, innovative behaviour. These findings contribute to the literature by disclosing the processes linking job insecurity with impaired work outcomes and help to elucidate how and when employee can keep their innovative potential alive in spite of insecure work conditions.

The Role of Employee Self-Efficacy in Top-Down Burnout Crossover: A Longitudinal Study

: Burnout has been a prominent topic in the management research for over 30 years. Yet few studies have explored the conditions that foster burnout from managers to employees (indirect crossover). Based on the principle of behavioral plasticity, we propose that self-efficacy is an adaptive resource that enables employees to counter the potentially crossover effects of burnout (ie, emotional exhaustion and cynicism). This proposal is partially supported by the results of a longitudinal analysis of educators (principals and teachers): a moderating effect of employee self-efficacy was found, but only for emotional exhaustion, which is considered the basic individual stress dimension of burnout. More specifically, managerial emotional exhaustion was associated with lower emotional exhaustion over time in employees who reported higher self-efficacy, with the inverse association for employees with lower self-efficacy. This suggests that managers' emotional exhaustion can indirectly affect the experience of a congruent emotional state in their subordinates. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Entrepreneur's Psychological Capital, Creative Innovation Behavior, and Enterprise Performance

In order to analyze the relationship between entrepreneur psychological capital, creative innovation behavior, and enterprise performance based on the actual situation of Chinese enterprises and provide a theoretical basis for the application of entrepreneur psychological capital in enterprise innovation and performance development, in this study, 536 entrepreneurs from 517 enterprises in different fields in Anhui region were selected, and a questionnaire survey on the psychological capital of entrepreneurs, creative innovation behaviors, and corporate performance was conducted. A hypothesis model of the relationship between entrepreneur’s psychological capital, creative innovation behavior, and enterprise performance was constructed. The correlation between entrepreneur’s psychological capital, creative innovation behavior, and enterprise performance and the intermediation of creative innovation behavior were analyzed using multiple-regression model and structural equation model. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between dimensions of self-efficacy (regression coefficient = 0.682, p = 0.000), toughness (regression coefficient = 0.526, p = 0.000), and enterprise performance; there is a significant positive correlation between the dimensions of optimism (regression coefficient = 0.471, p = 0.003), hope (regression coefficient = 0.590, p = 0.006), and enterprise performance; there is a significant positive correlation between entrepreneurs’ technological innovation behavior (regression coefficient = 0.506, p = 0.000), business innovation behavior (regression coefficient = 0.562, p = 0.000), and enterprise performance; there is a significant positive correlation between entrepreneurial relationship acquisition behavior (regression coefficient = 0.632, p = 0.004) and enterprise performance. Taking entrepreneurs’ creative innovation behavior as the intermediary variable, the authors conclude that the dimensions of entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy, hope, optimism, toughness, and the standardized path coefficient of enterprise performance are significantly reduced; through the analysis of structural equation model, it is found that the fitting index of the model of entrepreneur’s psychological capital, creative innovation behavior, and enterprise performance meets the fitting standard, which shows that both the psychological capital and the creative innovation behavior of entrepreneurs can promote the improvement of enterprise performance. Entrepreneur’s creative innovation behavior plays an intermediary effect in the positive influence of entrepreneur’s psychological capital on enterprise performance.

Why busy leaders may have exhausted followers: a multilevel perspective on supportive leadership

Purpose

This study of leaders and followers working in day-care centers aims to use a multilevel perspective on supportive leadership to examine its role in linking workload at the leader level and emotional exhaustion at the follower level. Integrating theoretical work on social support with conservation of resources (COR) theory, leaders' workload is proposed to be positively related to followers' feelings of emotional exhaustion through constraining the enactment of supportive leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

Multisource survey data from 442 followers and their leaders from 68 teams were collected to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Multilevel analyses showed that leader workload was negatively related to followers' perception of supportive leadership, which, in turn, was positively related to followers' levels of emotional exhaustion. Leader workload was indirectly and positively related to follower emotional exhaustion via supportive leadership.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides initial support for the idea that work contextual factors at the leader level create boundaries for the extent to which leaders may provide support to their followers and draws attention to the accountability of leaders' work contextual factors for followers' well-being.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that organizations must not focus narrowly on training leaders on how to benefit followers but should also aim to optimize leaders' levels of workload to enable them to act in a supportive manner.

Originality/value

By considering both the receivers (i.e. followers) and providers (i.e. leaders) of support simultaneously, we take a crossover approach to COR theory and acknowledge that work contextual factors at higher organizational levels may spread to employee well-being at lower levels of the organization.

Leader self-enhancement values: curvilinear and congruence effects

Purpose

Assumptions regarding the effect of leader self-enhancement values on leader-follower relationships are oversimplified. To advance this conversation, we test non-linear and congruence effects. We hypothesize that leader self-enhancement values (via prestige) have an inverted U-shaped relationship with employee perceptions of leader-member exchange (LMX) and leader interpersonal justice, and that leader-follower incongruence is negatively related to LMX and interpersonal justice.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate our hypotheses we use hierarchical regression, polynomial regression, and surface plot analysis. Our sample consists of 193 leader-follower dyads from a variety of organizations.

Findings

LMX and interpersonal justice increase as leader self-enhancement increases, but begin to decrease at higher levels of self-enhancement values. Additionally, leader-follower self-enhancement incongruence is negatively related to interpersonal justice. Finally, LMX is lowest when leaders are higher than followers in self-enhancement values compared to when followers are higher than leaders.

Practical implications

It is critical to evaluate the level of leader self-enhancement values and/or the joint influence of the follower values (self-enhancement) to fully understand the effect of leader values on follower perceptions of the dyadic relationship. Organizations interested in facilitating high-quality leader-follower relationships should focus on the levels of the values and on mechanisms that facilitate leader-follower value alignment.

Originality/value

This work extends prior research assuming a direct, linear effect of leader self-enhancement values on follower outcomes. To fully understand the influence of leader values it is important to consider curvilinear and congruence effects.

Kick the Cat: A Serial Crossover Effect of Supervisors' Ego Depletion on Subordinates' Deviant Behavior

Drawing on the crossover model and conservation of resources theory, we explore the mechanism through which supervisors' ego depletion induces subordinates' deviant behavior. Using the two-wave survey data from 24 supervisors and their 192 respective subordinates, we found supports for our hypotheses that (a) abusive supervision mediated the effect of supervisors' ego depletion on subordinates' ego depletion; (b) subordinates' ego depletion mediated the effect of abusive supervision on subordinates' deviant behavior; and (c) abusive supervision and subordinates' ego depletion serially mediated the effect of supervisors' ego depletion on subordinates' deviant behavior. Our serial crossover model posits that both ego depletion and unethical behavior can be transmitted from supervisors to subordinates, and that these two crossover processes are entwined with each other. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical contributions and practical implications.

Work-Family Conflict Impact on Psychological Safety and Psychological Well-Being: A Job Performance Model

In a modern working environment characterized by new technology and work assignments extended to personal time, employees are expected to balance multiple roles while maintaining maximum productivity. Past studies analyzed work-family conflict and its connection to job performance, without adequate integration of psychological factors into the research model. This study aims to fill the gap and explain the impact of work-family conflict and psychological factors on job performance. To explore the association between work-family conflict and job performance and measure the effects on psychological safety and psychological well-being, an empirical study was conducted on a sample of 277 company employees in Bahrain. The online questionnaire used five-point Likert-scales adopted from previous studies to measure the variables of the research model. In the structural model, relationships between work-family conflict, psychological well-being, psychological safety, and job performance were tested. Confirmatory Factor Analysis with Maximum likelihood estimation was performed by using SEM software AMOS version 23. The findings of the study suggest there is a negative impact of work-family conflict on psychological safety and psychological well-being. This study is significant since it detaches from the prior researches focused on observing the repercussions of work-family conflict in workers' well-being, and centers on the analysis of job performance instead. The findings show that psychological well-being and psychological safety influence job performance. When psychological well-being and psychological safety of employees are unsatisfactory, job performance will decrease accordingly. The mediation test indicated that work-family conflict had an indirect influence on job performance when psychological safety and psychological well-being were mediators. The study contributes to a better understanding of work-family conflict, psychology of employees, and job performance. The study provides valuable insight to organizations on ways to increase employees' effectiveness and ensure better performance by preventing work-family conflict from occurring.

Caring for Oneself or for Others? How Consistent and Inconsistent Profiles of Health-Oriented Leadership Are Related to Follower Strain and Health

Health-oriented leadership consists of three dimensions that contribute to employee health: staff care, i.e., health-specific follower-directed leadership, as well as both leaders' and followers' self care, i.e., health-specific self-leadership. This study explores profiles of follower self care, leader self care and staff care, and investigates the relationships with follower health in two samples. We identified four patterns of health-oriented leadership: A consistently positive profile (high care), a consistently negative profile (low care), and two profiles showing inconsistencies between follower self care, leader self care, and staff care (leader sacrifice and follower sacrifice). The high care profile reported the best health compared to both the low care profile and the inconsistent profiles. The follower sacrifice profile reported more strain than the leader sacrifice profile, while strain and health levels were the least favorable in the low care profile. Findings reveal that (in-)consistency between follower-directed leadership and self-leadership contributes to follower strain and health.

Determinants of employee retention: a moderated mediation model of abusive leadership and psychological empowerment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between psychological safety (PS) and employee retention (ER) when psychological empowerment (PE) is a mediator variable and abusive leadership is a moderating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted by receiving responses from managers and supervisors of the telecom industry. The sample size was 337. Standard questionnaires were used to collect data. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to capture the differences on the effect of ER because of the presence of abusive leadership.

Findings

The findings of the study revealed that the abusive leadership moderates the relationship between employees PS and PE. The mediation effect of PE between PS and ER relationship was found to be significant. The relationship got weaker in the presence of high abusive leadership and stronger in the presence of low abusive leadership.

Practical implications

The paper discusses the drawbacks of abusive leadership on ER. Abusive leadership may bring immediate results. Employees may respond out of fear but would leave the organization as soon as they will get the opportunity.

Originality/value

The study on the abusive leadership is relatively less. The moderating role of abusive leadership on ER would add to the subject knowledge.

The antecedents and consequences of psychological capital: a meta-analytic approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on psychological capital (PsyCap) – one of the emerging topics of human resource management, by examining its antecedents and outcomes through the lens of social exchange theory.

Design/methodology/approach

A meta-analytic approach was applied to validate the proposed hypotheses. Altogether, 105 primary studies published between 2000 and 2018 were collected and used.

Findings

Results show that leadership styles (authentic leadership, ethical leadership, abusive leadership) and organizational support are antecedents and desirable work attitudes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior) are consequences of PsyCap. Employee’s characteristics significantly moderated the relationship between PsyCap and work attitudes.

Originality/value

This was the first attempt to examine PsyCap in a theoretical framework with its antecedents and outcomes and furthermore, to apply a meta-analytic method. The moderating role of employee characteristics in the relationship between PsyCap and work attitudes is also explored.

What Drives the Trickle-Down Effect of Calling Orientation From Supervisors to Subordinates? The Perspective of Social Learning Theory

Despite an increase in research on calling orientation, few studies have investigated its antecedents. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesized that subordinates' perceptions of their supervisor's role modeling mediate the relationship between supervisor's and subordinates' calling orientations. Supervisor's organizational status is supposed to augment the trickle-down process for calling orientation. We used multilevel modeling to test these hypotheses in a sample of 738 subordinates nested in 77 work teams in Chinese firm. We found that supervisor's calling orientation was positively related to subordinate's calling orientation and that the relationship was fully mediated by subordinates' perceptions of role modeling. Additionally, the relationship between supervisor's calling orientation and subordinates' calling orientation via role modeling was moderated by supervisor's organizational status at the second stage.

Leader-follower crossover: exhaustion predicts somatic complaints via StaffCare behavior

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect crossover effects of leaders’ exhaustion on followers’ somatic complaints by testing leaders’ health-oriented behavior toward employees as a possible underlying mechanism.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-wave online study using data from different sources was conducted. In a sample of 106 leaders and followers, leaders were paired with one or two followers. Leaders rated their level of exhaustion at Time 1, and followers rated their leaders’ health-oriented leadership behavior (i.e. StaffCare behavior) and their own level of somatic complaints three months later (Time 2).

Findings

Results provided evidence of an indirect crossover effect from leaders’ exhaustion to followers’ somatic complaints through StaffCare behavior. There was no direct crossover effect.

Practical implications

Findings suggest that organizations should attend to leaders’ health as a means to allow for StaffCare behavior and thus protect employee health.

Originality/value

StaffCare behavior represents a new concept that focuses on health-related aspects of leadership. This is the first study to take an in-depth look at the question of how this leadership behavior is tied to crossover from leader exhaustion to follower health.

A Resource Perspective on Abusive Supervision and Extra-Role Behaviors: The Role of Subordinates’ Psychological Capital

Abusive supervision (perceived enduring hostile verbal and nonverbal behavior) results in a host of detrimental consequences for the individual subordinate and for the organization. In the current research, we tested whether abusive supervision relates negatively to beneficial extra-role behaviors of subordinates (individual-directed and organization-directed citizenship behaviors; OCBI and OCBO) and positively to deviant extra-role behaviors of subordinates (individual-directed and organization-directed counterproductive work behavior; CWBI and CWBO). Moreover, reasoning from a resource perspective, we examined whether subordinates’ psychological capital (PsyCap: hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism) mediates these relations. PsyCap is a resource variable that is amenable to situational influences such as leadership. This makes PsyCap align with a theoretically viable, but previously not explicitly tested, mechanism underlying the effects of abusive supervision. We conducted a time-lagged, multisource study among 408 university faculty members. Abusive supervision and PsyCap were measured at Time 1 from focal participants. At Time 2, data for OCBs were collected from their supervisors and data for CWBs were collected from their peers. Results indicate that PsyCap mediated the relations between abusive supervision and OCBI, OCBO, CWBI, and CWBO. Shedding light on this process helps researchers and practitioners develop ways in which to mitigate the consequences of abusive supervision, for example, by seeking to develop PsyCap using different resources.