Leadership styles and burnout: is there an association?

Abstract

Purpose -The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between leadership styles and burnout among hospitality managers currently working in the industry of Cyprus. Specifically, transformational, transactional and passive/avoidance are to be investigated in order to establish which leadership style is more prone to burnout effects. Design/methodology/approach -Adopting a quantitative approach, the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ 5X-Short) was utilized to allow research participants to describe their leadership style as they perceive it. In addition, the most widely acknowledged tool for measuring burnout, the Maslach burnout inventory (MBI), was also incorporated in the questionnaire, which was then distributed to 500 hospitality managers in Cyprus. A number of hypotheses, reflecting the primary objective of the study, were postulated. Findings -The findings suggest that transformational leadership has a significant positive association with personal accomplishment and is negatively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. In addition a positive relationship exists between passive avoidance leadership and emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Finally, individuals with a passive avoidance leadership style exhibited higher levels of burnout. Research limitations/implications -It is well documented in the literature that surveys measuring sensitive issues, such as leadership styles and burnout levels, have inbuilt limitations. With regards to leadership, the authors acknowledge that they were not able to replicate the original nine-factor solution of the MLQ 5X, therefore, findings should be viewed with caution. The second limitation is the small sample size (n ¼ 131) and the homogeneity of the sample, which limit the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications -The findings have a practical relevance to both hospitality stakeholders and academic scholars who wish to further explore the leadership-burnout association. In addition, human resources practitioners could utilize the findings when developing strategies for recruiting and developing leaders. Originality/value -The paper adds to existing knowledge by investigating an issue presented in just a few hospitality-related studies. While burnout and leadership separately have captured the attention of hospitality researchers, studies investigating their association are ubiquitous by their absence. The insights derived from this paper are of value to academic scholars wishing to build on this exploratory investigation.

An investigation into the effect of leadership style on stress-related presenteeism in South African knowledge workers

“…Its purpose was to empirically examine the effect of three leadership styles, namely transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership, on job-relatedstress presenteeism in knowledge workers across a number of industries in South Africa. Although leadership has been extensively researched, it remains difficult to understand the full extent of the complex interrelationships involved in leadership processes (Zopiatis & Constanti, 2010). Leadership style is of particular interest to researchers (Ogbonna & Harris, 2000) as it impacts both employee and organisational performance.…”

“…Laissez-faire leaders tend to avoid any involvement with their subordinates. Numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between these leadership behaviours and various phenomena, such as burnout, stress, job satisfaction and performance (Dale & Fox, 2008;Danish & Usman, 2010;Failla & Stichler, 2008;Yang, Huang & Wu, 2011;Zopiatis & Constanti, 2010). Hetland, Sandal and Johnsen (2007) studied the effects of leadership style on burnout in a Norwegian information technology firm and concluded that each style impacted the level of employee burnout differently.…”

“…Organisations are therefore becoming increasingly concerned about the phenomenon as organisational performance is significantly impacted (PuigRibera, McKenna, Gilson & Brown, 2008). A number of scholars, specifically Zopiatis and Constanti (2010), Mathieu, Neumann, Hare and Babiak (2014), Kara, Uysal, Sirgy and Lee (2013), conclude that leadership behaviour impacts followers' stress and burnout levels. The current research therefore included leadership as an important variable.…”

The Relationship Between Occupational Burnout and Perceived Ethical Leadership Style

“…The majority of leadership styles is evaluated unambiguously in the context of occupational burnout. Transformational, authentic, participative, or supportive leadership styles are related to lower probability of occupational burnout while transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles are related to higher probability of occupational burnout (Yuan, & Lee, 2011;Gill, Flaschner, & Shachar, 2006;Russell, 2014;Laschinger, Wong, & Grau, 2012;Zehir, Ertosun, Zehir, & Müceldili, 2011;Zopiatis, & Constanti, 2010;Kanste et al, 2007). Still the relationship between ethical leadership and burnout is not clear.…”

The Effect of Educational Leadership on Organizational Variables: A Meta–Analysis Study in the Sample of Turkey

“…There are studies examining the relationship between leadership and various variables, such as organizational culture (Karadağ, 2009;Koşar & Çalık, 2011, Turan & Bektaş, 2013, organizational climate (Şentürk & Sağnak, 2012), performance (Özmen, 2005), job satisfaction (Yılmaz & Ceylan, 2011), organizational commitment (Buluç, 2009), burnout (Cerit, 2008) in the sample of overall Turkey. Also in the international literature it is possible to find many researchers testing the relationship between leadership and different organizational variables (Griffith, 2004;Khasawneh, 2001;Lok & Crawford, 2004;Zopiatis & Constanti, 2010).…”