Although evidence has been mounting that supervisor support training interventions promote employee job, health, and well-being outcomes, there is little understanding of the mechanisms by which such interventions operate (e.g., Hammer et al., 2022;Inceoglu et al., 2018), nor about the integration of such organizational-level interventions with individual-level interventions (e.g., Lamontagne et al., 2007). Thus, the present study attempts to unpack the mechanisms through which supervisor support training interventions operate. In addition, the present study examines an integrated Total Worker Health ® intervention that combines health protection in the form of supervisor support training (i.e., family supportive supervisor behaviors and supervisor support for sleep health) with a health promotion approach in the form of feedback to improve sleep health behaviors. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial drawing on a sample of 704 full-time employees, results demonstrate that the Total Worker Health intervention improves employee job well-being (i.e., increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover intentions), personal well-being (i.e., reduced stress before bedtime), and reduces personal and social functional impairment at 9 months postbaseline through employee reports of supervisors' support for sleep at 4 months postbaseline, but not through family supportive supervisor behaviors. Effects were not found for general stress or occupational functional impairment outcomes. Implications are discussed, including theoretical mechanisms by which leadership interventions affect employees, supervisor training, as well as the role of integrated organizational and individual-level interventions.
Workplace supportive supervisor interventions offer an effective, though underutilized mechanism to bolster employee well‐being, which may have important benefits particularly for understudied groups such as military veterans in the civilian workforce. The present study employed a two‐wave daily diary study to test the effectiveness of a supportive supervisor training on positive and negative emotions of veteran employees. Daily diaries are instrumental to understanding well‐being, in that they accurately capture emotions as they are experienced without retrospective biases that reflect more global emotional assessments. Each wave (baseline and 6 months later) comprised emotion reports over 32‐day periods. Thirty‐five organizations were randomized into intervention and control groups; 144 veterans (91% men) participated in the daily diaries at baseline. The training significantly improved well‐being facets including improvements in unactivated positive (i.e., calm) emotions at follow‐up. Two significant moderation effects were also revealed for PTSD screening. For veteran employees with positive PTSD screens, the intervention functioned to reduce negative emotions. For those employees with negative PTSD screens, the intervention enhanced positive emotions. Our work highlights the benefit of workplace supervisor support to positive and negative employee mood. Practitioner points Our supervisor support training represents an evidence‐based programme that improves employee positive emotions. Positive emotions were increased among veterans who did not screen positive for PTSD (i.e., most veterans). Veterans with positive PTSD screens may benefit from enhanced supervisor support resulting in a reduction of negative emotions, providing supportive evidence for supervisor mental health awareness training.
The present study evaluates the effectiveness of a supervisor support training programme on both supervisor attitudes and employee sleep and stress outcomes by drawing on a multi-level rigorous randomized controlled trial in 35 organizations. Utilizing theory from the social support and training literatures, the purpose of the current study was to understand ways to improve the transition, and ultimately the health and well-being, of military veteran employees in the workplace via a supervisor support training intervention. Drawing on a sample of 982 supervisors and a subsample of 189 matched supervisor-employee dyads, the current study demonstrated that supervisor support training led to improved supervisor attitudes towards veteran employees. Additionally, supervisors' attitudes towards veteran employees at baseline significantly moderated the effects of the training on employee sleep and stress outcomes, suggesting that the training was more effective when supervisors started out with more positive attitudes towards veterans. These results demonstrate the importance of training supervisors to support employed veterans and employees more generally, and have implications for research, practice, and theory development. Practitioner pointsThe Veteran Supportive Supervisor Training (VSST) promotes more positive supervisor attitudes towards veteran employees. When supervisor attitudes towards veteran employees are more positive, the supportive supervisor training improves sleep and stress outcomes for veteran employees. The VSST effects suggest that the training has promise to be extended to other leadership support domains, such as supervisor support for health; to other types of vulnerable and underserved workers, such as those with disabilities; and to other employee well-being outcomes, such as engagement and satisfaction at work and at home.With tens of thousands of U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and millions of international veterans residing worldwide, surprisingly little attention has been concentrated on their post-deployment transition into the civilian workforce.
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