The role of authentic leadership on healthcare Street‐Level Bureaucrats’ well‐being during the pandemic

Abstract

This study uses Conservation of Resources Theory, to explain Street‐Level Bureaucrats’ (SLBs) workplace behavioural responses to threats to their well‐being. We examine whether authentic leadership within street‐level organisations positively impacts employee well‐being by increasing SLBs’ perception of personal resources, and reducing their perceptions of work harassment. The research design comprises a survey that solicited quantitative and qualitative data from 163 healthcare SLBs working in Australian hospitals during the pandemic in April 2020. Analysis of the means indicates low levels of satisfaction with leadership and low levels of well‐being for SLBs. The structural equation modelling findings show that poor leadership is associated with higher levels of work harassment and lower levels of employee well‐being. Qualitative data support these findings. As healthcare workers were already listed as over‐represented in the stress‐related workers compensation statistics, one strategy may be to improve the level of organisational support by upskilling managers in authentic leadership behaviours with the aim of increasing their perception of support so as to increase employee well‐being. This will benefit employees and their families, and the community they service. Points for practitioners Street‐Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) have been increasingly experiencing the public sector gap (demand outstripping supply of resources) because of the dominance of the austerity‐driven managerialist paradigm. The recent COVID‐19 crisis amplified the severity and impact of the public sector gap causing increased perceptions of work harassment and reductions in SLBs’ well‐being. However, SLBs with high levels of Psychological Capital had a natural buffer in place to protect their well‐being, and as such, they perceived less work harassment and erosion of their well‐being. The way forward is to complement the austerity‐driven managerialist paradigm in management decision‐making with authentic leadership behaviours focused on maximising the well‐being of SLBs and the public.

“Nobody wants to be a dead hero”: Coping with precarity at the frontlines of the Brazilian and Mexican pandemic response

“…Mental health problems are common and often remain untreated, as was also found by scholars analyzing other street-level bureaucrats working during the pandemic (e.g. Brunetto et al, 2022;Farr-Wharton et al, 2022;Salehi et al, 2023). In our cases we found that, in response to untreated mental health issues, workers often develop fatalist or cynical attitudes regarding their work.…”

“…However, this pattern does not seem to result simply from maximizing, selfish, or opportunistic calculations by frontline workers, but is, rather, a product of the conditions in which they are bound to operate. Moreover, considering that behavioral responses affect wellbeing (Salehi et al, 2023), we can expect that, in extreme cases as those analyzed here, the self-preservation response emerges as a survival strategy. This conclusion helps explain why studies in non-Western countries often find that street-level bureaucrats simultaneously exclude clients (Eiró, 2019;Perelmiter, 2021;Spink et al, 2021) and try to bridge significant public service gaps (Masood & Nisar, 2021;Mohammed, 2021).…”

“…It has created new challenges for frontline workers who are often caught between an action imperative on the one hand and the need to protect their own wellbeing on the other hand (Gofen & Lotta, 2022). This situation required many emotional and behavioral responses (Brunetto et al, 2022;Salehi et al, 2023) that impacted not only street-level bureaucrats' wellbeing (Brunetto et al, 2022) but also their job performance (Ogbonnaya et al, 2023).…”

“…First, our findings underscore the importance of the institutional analysis of frontline conditions to understand variations in workers' coping. A large part of the literature on street-level bureaucracy explains frontline worker behavior by looking at how they use their agency and how this is influenced by their personal beliefs and norms (Evans, 2011;Jilke & Tummers, 2018;Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003) or by their behavioral and psychological capabilities (Brunetto et al, 2022;Farr-Wharton et al, 2022;Salehi et al, 2023). However, it is well-documented that frontline workers also respond to their working conditions, as shaped by factors beyond their individual agency (Hupe & Hill, 2016;Møller, 2021;Sandfort, 2000).…”

Sistematik Reviu Literatur Gaya Kepemimpinan Positif di Bidang Pelayanan Kesehatan (2019- 2023): Tren dan Penelitian Lanjutan

“…Adanya pandemi COVID-19 yang belum lama ini terjadi, penelitian yang menaikkan isu-isu yang berkaitan dengan tenaga kesehatan banyak dilakukan (Awad & Ashour, 2022;Salehi et al, 2023).…”