Leadership, followers' mental health and job performance in organizations: A comprehensive meta‐analysis from an occupational health perspective

Abstract

Summary The present meta‐analysis investigates the associations between leadership, followers' mental health, and job performance by taking into account different groups of leadership constructs including transformational leadership, relations‐oriented leadership, task‐oriented leadership, destructive leadership, and leader–member exchange. Six categories of mental health‐related outcomes are considered representing both negative and positive mental health states of followers, namely, affective symptoms, burnout, stress, well‐being, psychological functioning, and health complaints. Meta‐analytic models are used to estimate the association between these categories of leadership and mental health. Our results reveal that transformational leadership, a high quality of relations‐oriented and task‐oriented leadership behavior, as well as a high quality of leader–follower interaction are positively associated with mental health. In contrast, destructive leadership is strongly negatively associated with mental health. In addition, the mediation effects of leadership on job performance via mental health are estimated. Results partially support the mediating role of mental health concerning the relationship between leadership and job performance. Our results emphasize the importance of leadership as an occupational health factor, and they may serve as basis for the planning and designing of occupational health policies and interventions despite existing research limitations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fostering mutual gains: Explaining the influence of high‐performance work systems and leadership on psychological health and service performance

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“…For example, research has shown that implementation of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) leads to work intensification and ultimately, impairs employee physical and psychological health (Kroon, Van De Voorde, & Van Veldhoven, ; Loon, Otaye‐Ebede, & Stewart, ; Ogbonnaya, Daniels, Connolly, & Van Veldhoven, ; Van De Voorde, Paauwe, & Van Veldhoven, ). Similarly, leadership behaviours such as abusive supervision has been shown to impair employee well‐being (Liang, Hanig, Evans, Brown, & Lian, ), precipitating a growing focus on well‐being in the wider leadership literature (Donaldson‐Feilder et al, ; Inceoglu, Thomas, Chu, Plans, & Gerbasi, ; Jiménez, Winkler, & Dunkl, ; Kelloway & Barling, ; Kelloway, Turner, Barling, & Loughlin, ; Kelloway, Weigand, McKee, & Das, ; Montano, Reeske, Franke, & Huffmeier, ).…”

Long-Term Attitude Change After a Single-Day Manager Training Addressing Mental Health at the Workplace

“…As mentioned above, the supervisor in charge may play another important role. Extensive research has been performed on the influence of supervisor behavior and leadership style on employees' work performance and well-being [32][33][34]. Data show that both can be related to workers' mental health in a negative or positive way.…”

Integral Organizational Wellness™: An evidence‐based model of socially inspired well‐being

“…Whether called thriving, flourishing, prospering, or actualization, organizations have the capacity to shape healthy identities (Dailey & Zhu, 2017) and foster well‐being. Applied research in this area pertains more to organizational‐level efforts (e.g., policies, practices, and benefits) that: (a) promote work‐life balance, wherein employee roles inside and outside of work enrich and enhance the other, partly through human resource benefits (Muse, Harris, Giles, & Feild, ; Kossek, Valcour, Lirio; 2014); (b) enhance happiness at work (Amabile & Kramer, ; Nielsen et al, 2017; Nierenberg, Alexakis, Preziosi, & O’Neill, 2017; Simmons, ); (c) promote positive leadership behaviors such as virtue, servant and transformational leadership, and healthy role modeling (e.g., Kelloway, Weigand, McKee, & Das, ; Kuoppala, Lamminpää, Liira, & Vainio, ; Montano, Reeske, Franke, & Hüffmeier, ; Van Dierendonck, Haynes, Borrill, & Stride, ); and (d) build positive psychological resources such as mindfulness, work breaks, positive reflection, and gratitude in the work setting (Gilbert, Foulk, & Bono, ; Virgili, ). A meta‐analysis of randomized trials of positive psychological interventions (39 studies, n = 6,139) showed positive effects of these types of efforts on improved well‐being and reduced depression (Bolier et al., ).…”