Healthy Leadership in Turbulent Times: The Effectiveness of Health‐Oriented Leadership in Crisis

Abstract

Previous research has supported the positive effects of health-oriented leadership (HoL) on follower health. However, effectiveness in times of crisis is unknown. This study examines whether crises weaken or strengthen the positive relationships of health-oriented leadership with follower strain and performance. Effectiveness was tested for (1) follower irritation and performance (extra effort) in smaller crises on the team level with a vignette study (N = 257) and (2) follower exhaustion and performance (task proficiency) during the Covid-19 crisis in a cross-sectional survey study (N = 196). As expected, the results provided evidence for an increase in follower health with higher health-oriented leadership but a decrease in health in crises. The positive relationship between health-oriented leadership and follower health was even stronger in crises. Health-oriented leadership had a positive relationship with job performance in both studies. Our findings provide initial evidence that health-oriented leadership is particularly important for followers affected by a crisis, and that leaders should display health-oriented leadership in both small-scale and large-scale crises. Findings suggest that health-oriented leadership does not undermine goal achievement but relates positively to performance. More generally, the study contributes to the clarification and deeper understanding of situational contingencies of health-specific leadership concepts.

The Show Must Go On

“…Moreover, the pattern of relationships between crisis severity, staff-care, and follower health reflects the resource gain paradox, as staff-care is lower among employees during a severe crisis, but at the same time more strongly related to well-being. These findings show that HoL particularly gains importance when followers' well-being is threatened (see also Klebe et al, 2021). Further theoretical and empirical work is needed to understand how these patterns evolve over time with increasing crisis duration, for example, with respect to escalating loss spirals or adaptation.…”

“…The review by Rudolph, Murphy et al (2020) criticizes that behaviors defined as "healthy leadership" are conflated with the outcomes health and well-being, and that studies on healthy leadership suffer from insufficient methodologies or from "phantom validation." However, a growing number of studies support the relevance of the HoL model in particular (Arnold & Rigotti, 2021;Franke et al, 2014;Horstmann, 2018;Kaluza et al, 2021;Klebe et al, 2021;Klug et al, 2019;Köppe et al, 2018). Research shows that staff-care relates to other relevant leadership criteria such as commitment, job satisfaction, performance, or engagement (Kaluza et al, 2021;Klebe et al, 2021;Pundt & Felfe, 2017).…”

“…However, a growing number of studies support the relevance of the HoL model in particular (Arnold & Rigotti, 2021;Franke et al, 2014;Horstmann, 2018;Kaluza et al, 2021;Klebe et al, 2021;Klug et al, 2019;Köppe et al, 2018). Research shows that staff-care relates to other relevant leadership criteria such as commitment, job satisfaction, performance, or engagement (Kaluza et al, 2021;Klebe et al, 2021;Pundt & Felfe, 2017). Staff-care has also been shown to be empirically distinct from and to explain variance in health above and beyond other leadership constructs (Franke et al, 2014;Kaluza et al, 2021;Vincent-Höper & Stein, 2019).…”

“…Staff-care has also been shown to be empirically distinct from and to explain variance in health above and beyond other leadership constructs (Franke et al, 2014;Kaluza et al, 2021;Vincent-Höper & Stein, 2019). Regarding the criticism of poor methodology, a growing number of studies are using experimental (Kaluza et al, 2021;Klebe et al, 2021) or longitudinal designs (Arnold & Rigotti, 2021;Franke et al, 2014;Köppe et al, 2018), which further contributes to the validation of health-oriented leadership.…”

“…While there is empirical evidence for the positive influence of HoL on followers, less is known about situational factors that promote or hinder health-oriented leadership, such as crises (Klebe et al, 2021). Crisis in particular demands a high need for constructive leadership to ensure follower health, because of the increase in health risks (Ahmed et al, 2020).…”