The objective of this article is to investigate transformational leadership as a potential moderator of the negative relationship of time pressure to work-life balance and of the positive relationship between time pressure and exhaustion. Recent research regards time pressure as a challenge stressor; while being positively related to motivation and performance, time pressure also increases employee strain and decreases well-being. Building on the Job Demand-Resources model, we hypothesize that transformational leadership moderates the relationships between time pressure and both employees' exhaustion and work-life balance such that both relationships will be weaker when transformational leadership is higher. Of seven information technology organizations in Germany, 262 employees participated in the study. Established scales for time pressure, transformational leadership, work-life balance, and exhaustion were used, all showing good internal consistencies. The results support our assumptions. Specifically, we find that under high transformational leadership the impact of time pressure on exhaustion and work-life balance was less strong. The results of this study suggest that, particularly under high time pressure, transformational leadership is an important factor for both employees' work-life balance and exhaustion.

This study considers turnover intention from a stress theory perspective as a coping response to illegitimate tasks. We build on the stress-as-offense-to-self (SOS) framework to analyze the relationship between illegitimate tasks and turnover intention and the moderating role of appreciative leadership as an organizational resource. According to the SOS concept, illegitimate tasks are tasks that are considered unnecessary or unreasonable, thus violating expectations about what can reasonably be required from an employee. They signal a lack of appreciation and respect to the employee, who is expected to fulfill them, and thus constitute a threat to one’s self-esteem. In contrast, perceived appreciative leadership strengthens employees’ self-esteem by praise and acknowledgment. A total of 235 German information technology (IT) professionals of 4 IT companies participated in this study. Results supported the theoretical assumptions that, controlling for job satisfaction, time pressure, and job control, (a) illegitimate tasks are positively related to turnover intention, and (b) appreciative leadership buffers this relationship. That is, if appreciation by the supervisor is high, illegitimate tasks are less strongly related to turnover intention as compared with low appreciation by the supervisor. The significant association between the task-related stressor (illegitimate tasks) and higher turnover intention extends previous research on the stressor-turnover intention relationship. The buffer effect of appreciative leadership highlights the important role of leadership behavior in preventing turnover intention. Supervisors are recommended to appreciate employee’s achievements and qualities and to avoid assigning illegitimate tasks.

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