Is transformational leadership healthy for employees? A multilevel analysis in 16 nations ** This study examines the potential health promoting and hampering effects of transformational, contingent reward and laissez-faire leadership across 16 countries with a multi-source dataset comprising 93,576 subordinates in 11,177 teams of a large international company. We analyze how leadership climate strength, defined as the shared perceptions of employees concerning their supervisor's leadership behavior, affects individual employees' health and if leaders who are both transformational and transactional have more healthy employees (augmentation effect). In addition, we investigate how national power distance moderates these relationships. The results of multi-level analysis provide strong support for the health promoting effect of transformational leadership (r = .16 to r = .50), contingent reward (r = .14 to r = .48) and the health hampering effect of laissez-faire leadership (r =-.15 to r =-.43) within the analyzed 16 nations. Having a strong transformational leadership climate is also associated with better perceived health in eight countries. Finally, the augmentation effect was significant in six countries and we also found, as expected, that a high power distance strengthens the health promoting effects of transformational leadership. Overall, this study indicates that having a shared vision as well as clear goals, roles and rewards at work is important for promoting employees' health worldwide.

This study investigated the effects of transformational and laissez-faire leadership on leaders' own emotional exhaustion over time. Participants were 2,324 subordinates and 76 supervisors of a services company in Germany. Regression analysis revealed direct longitudinal health-hampering effects of transformational and laissez-faire leadership on leaders' emotional exhaustion. Building on Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory (1989), our results showed that the longitudinal health-hampering effects of transformational leadership would be particularly pronounced for leaders with high levels of organization-based self-esteem. Our findings extend the research on potential dark sides of transformational and laissez-faire leadership as well as organization-based self-esteem by focusing on leader-centered outcomes. Theoretical backgroundThe role of transformational and laissez-faire leadership on health and well-being Over the last decades, there has been growing interest in the effects of leadership behaviors on subordinates' health and

a b s t r a c tBackground/aim: Occupational health largely depends on the perceived fit between the employee's abilities and workplace demands/factors. The Areas of Worklife Scale (AWS) specifies six areas that are particularly relevant in this respect: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. The current article aimed at investigating the factorial structure and the criterion validity of the German translation of the AWS. Methods: Data were collected in two samples. In study 1, 1455 public service workers were surveyed using the six areas of worklife and well-being. In study 2, to investigate the well-established relationship between the AWS and burnout, the scale was administered to a nursing sample (N = 443). Results: High internal consistencies for all six scales were obtained in both studies. Exploratory as well as confirmatory factor analysis replicated the theoretically assumed six scale structure of the AWS. Evidence of criterion validity was found by multiple linear regression analysis with well-being as dependent measure (study 1). SEM analyses supported the hypothesized relationships between the six AWS dimensions and burnout (study 2). As predicted by Maslach (2004, 2009), only some areas were directly associated with the health-related outcomes (well-being and burnout). In line with previous work, workload and values proved to be the most critical areas of worklife. Conclusions: The six areas of worklife have been shown to be significant predictors of health-related outcomes. Based on the current studies, the German translation of the AWS can be proposed as a reliable and valid instrument to identify and specify critical work-related areas for occupational health.

Zusammenfassung. Das Zweifaktoren-Modell nach Karasek zum Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitsanforderungen und Tätigkeits-/Entscheidungsspielraum mit gesundheitlichen Auswirkungen der Arbeit hat in den letzten Jahren eine unverminderte Aktualität behalten. Es wird ein Fragebogen mit seinen Entwicklungs- und Validierungsbefunden vorgestellt, der sich an diesem Modell orientiert. Sein Einsatz wird als Screeningverfahren für die Abschätzung des Zusammenhangs zwischen Arbeitssituation und Gesundheitsauswirkungen empfohlen. In unabhängigen Stichproben (N = 526) konnte eine stabile Replikation des Zweifaktoren-Modells nachgewiesen werden. Erhöhter erlebter Tätigkeitsspielraum geht mit positivem Beanspruchungserleben und verbesserter Gesundheit einher. Erhöhte Arbeitsintensität ist mit verstärkten gesundheitlichen Beschwerden und erhöhter psychischer Fehlbeanspruchung verbunden. Die empirischen Befunde erbrachten keinen Nachweis der im Modell hypothetisch angenommenen Wechselwirkung zwischen Intensität der Anforderungen und Tätigkeitsspielraum. Differenziertere Modelle und der Einbezug bedingungsbezogener Analysedaten sind erforderlich, um über orientierende Anliegen hinaus Gestaltungsmaßnahmen abzuleiten.

This study was performed to test the usefulness of the EEG as a research instrument for music psychology in individuals. Measuring the degree of functional interrelatedness of brain areas by coherence estimates has turned out to be more efficient than amplitude mapping. Therefore, the method, based on the analysis of EEG periods of at least 1 min, has been expanded to estimate all possible coherence values between the 19 electrodes (i.e., 171 values) and to observe any significant changes in those values caused by different musical tasks. This report concerns observations in a total of 49 healthy subjects (29 male and 20 female). The main goal of this study was to determine the degree of engagement of either hemisphere in the processing of music. Two items were shown to indicate hemispheric involvement: (1) the topographic distribution of "focal points of coherence" (brain areas participating in coherence changes with respect to a great number of other brain areas) and (2) the number of intrahemispheric coherence increases. In most cases, both items seem to focus on the same hemisphere. Taking these as parameters for hemispheric engagement, the following principal observations were made: the beta bands (and particularly their uppermost ranges) seem to play a major role in the processing of music; the hemispheric engagement, however, need not be the same for each frequency band. No hemisphere seems to be preferred. When listening to music is shifted between different styles, laterality may change. When the same tasks are repeated at several weeks' intervals, a fairly large degree of consistency is found. Imagining music and composing clearly differs from listening by activating many more coherence increases in the beta band and by an increasing percentage of hemispheric interaction. This kind of analysis may also provide some clues as to how a piece of music is processed by an individual. The coherence changes observed may represent events taking place in a system of differential attention that selects and orders the sensory inputs before the musical material is further processed at higher order hierarchical levels.

The objective of this study was the development and validation of an integrated measure-assessment approach (driving performance and psychophysiological indicators) for the assessment of driving demands of rural road segments as a starting point for design. With 31 student test drivers and a selection of six study roads, the reactivity of psychophysiological parameters was evaluated based on a general model of cognitive-energetic effort regulation according to Hockey (1993). The road curvature change rate was introduced as the independent variable, which served as a criterion of objective road difficulty. Based on a reliability analysis, the longitudinal and cross-sectional stability, especially for heart rate (HR) and blink rate (BR) measures, is sufficiently high. Both these psychophysiological variables and speed vary as a function of the curvature change rate of the rural road segments. The speed parameter differentiates very strongly the different curvature change rates. Among the psychophysiological indicators, changes in the blink rate almost exactly mirror the level of the curvature change rate owing to the fact that the BR decreases almost steadily with increasing curvature change rate. Cardiovascular parameters, such as heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), and skin conductance response (SCR) also vary in relation to driving difficulty of road segments, but at levels of intermediate curvature other additional road characteristics may also influence these measures.

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The purpose of this study was to explore dangerousness and fire setting recidivism of mentally disordered firesetters in comparison with mentally healthy arsonists. In Germany, all trials are registered centrally by the Federal Central Register. The records of this Register for the three year period from 1983 until 1985 were used in this follow-up study of arsonists to identify three samples of subjects: (1) All persons convicted of arson who have been found not guilty by reasons of insanity (n = 186), (2) all person convicted of arson who have been found guilty of diminished responsibility (n = 97), and (3) a random selection from all persons convicted of arson who have had no psychiatric examination in their trial (n = 187). The follow-up ended in 1994, providing a period of, on average, ten years. Mentally disordered arsonists differed from non-mentally disordered arsonists in the following ways: They were more likely, first, to have a history of arson before 1983, and secondly, to be convicted of arson again (11% relapse compared to 4%). Mentally disordered arsonists had fewer registrations of common offenses, such as theft as well as traffic violations and alcohol-related offenses. Based on the present sample, mentally disordered firesetters have a higher rate of recurrence of firesetting than non-mentally disordered firesetters and commit fewer common offenses other than firesetting.