The Impact of Health-Oriented Leadership on Follower Health: Development and Test of a New Instrument Measuring Health-Promoting Leadership

Abstract

The impact of health-oriented leadership on follower health: Development and test of a new instrument measuring health-promoting leadership ** Based on previous research on leadership and follower health, three questions need to be answered or clarified. These questions refer to what health-specific leadership behavior is, whether motivational and cognitive aspects provide information beyond such behavior, and what role followers play in the leadership-health link. We introduce a new concept and measure of Health-oriented Leadership (HoL). This concept combines leaders' health-specific orientation towards followers (StaffCare; i.e., health behavior, health awareness, and value of health) and followers' health-specific attributes toward themselves (SelfCare). We present tests of construct and criterion validity from two field studies. The findings of Study 1 (N = 535) provide evidence for the construct validity of the HoL instrument. Study 2 (N = 383) examined the impact of StaffCare and SelfCare on follower health. As hypothesized, StaffCare as healthspecific leadership is related to followers' state of health, irritation, health complaints, and work-family conflicts. These effects were shown independently from transformational leadership indicating incremental validity. Moreover, the relationship between StaffCare and these outcomes is mediated by followers' SelfCare. The findings contribute to a more comprehensive picture of ways in which leaders can promote follower health by (a) engaging in StaffCare and (b) fostering followers' SelfCare.

Leader Behavior as a Determinant of Health at Work: Specification and Evidence of Five Key Pathways

“…First, to understand how and why leadership behavior in organizations promotes (or else harms) the health of employees (Franke, Felfe, & Pundt, 2014;Gregersen, Vincent-Höper, & Nienhaus, 2014;Winkler, Busch, Clasen, & Fohwinkel, 2014;Walsh, Dupré, & Arnold, 2014;Rivkin, Diestel, & Schmidt, 2014). Second, to elucidate potential differences between leadership approaches in explaining health at work (Gregersen et al, 2014;Franke et al, 2014;Zwingmann, Wegge, Wolf, Rudolf, Schmidt, & Richter, 2014). Third, to present new instruments and measures to assess and understand health-promoting leadership at work (Franke et al, 2014;Stocker, Jabobshagen, Krings, Pfister, & Semmer, 2014).…”

“…Second, to elucidate potential differences between leadership approaches in explaining health at work (Gregersen et al, 2014;Franke et al, 2014;Zwingmann, Wegge, Wolf, Rudolf, Schmidt, & Richter, 2014). Third, to present new instruments and measures to assess and understand health-promoting leadership at work (Franke et al, 2014;Stocker, Jabobshagen, Krings, Pfister, & Semmer, 2014). Fourth, to explore the antecedents and moderators of health-promoting leadership across different levels of an organization and across different cultures (Steffens, Haslam, Kerschreiter, Schuh, & van Dick, 2014;Zwingmann et al, 2014).…”

Why do employees follow their superiors’ instructions? Identification of the reasons to comply with superiors’ will in a group of Polish employees

“…For example, Franke et al [2] offered a new construct of Health-oriented Leadership (HoL). The authors distinguished StaffCare referring to external resources promoting health such as working conditions or support from superiors and SelfCare being employee's abilities to cope with job demands and thus, protect his or her health.…”

“…The authors distinguished StaffCare referring to external resources promoting health such as working conditions or support from superiors and SelfCare being employee's abilities to cope with job demands and thus, protect his or her health. The authors of the construct point that leadership behavior supporting StaffCare and SelfCare should represent all 3 distinguished dimensions: value of health expressed and accentuated by managers, health-promoting behavior showing their interest and engagement in the issue of employees' health and awareness referring to sensitivity to employees' states including their stress or wellbeing [2]. Such awareness may also involve recognizing and responding to employees' motives and expectations because good leadership results in economical outcomes but it also influences the quality of employees' lives such as satisfaction, work-life balance or health.…”

“…Managers influence the way their organizations work as well as the functioning of their subordinates -not only in the context of their work life but their non-professional functioning as well, e.g., their attitude towards health [1,2]. We believe that employees differ regarding their needs and motives and thus, motivating them to work and to listen to orders should follow satisfying their various expectations.…”