Leadership and work stress

Abstract

This dissertation examines the role the behaviors of leaders play in the context of work stress. Recently, the interrelation between the behavior of the leader and its consequences for followers has received growing attention from researchers as well as practitioners. Yet, important research questions remain unanswered. Therefore, this dissertation combines stress-related antecedents as well as stress-related consequences of leader behaviors in face of the full-range leadership behavior pattern (i.e. laissez-faire, transactional, and transformational leadership) to create an integrative model of leadership and to provide a detailed assessment of potential stress-related outcome variables. The dissertation focuses on the extension of findings on the basis of different, innovative measurement approaches to uncover robust effects between leadership and different stress measures. Further, a mediation model of leadership is examined to enable a better understanding of how leaders influence stress levels of their followers. Combined with the specification of when this influence is particularly strong and when it is not, the dissertation provides an encompassing research model in the field of leadership as well as stress research. Three empirical studies were conducted to shed light into this field of inquiry. In the first study leader stress is taken into account to investigate how leader stress influences leader behavior patterns. In the second and third study follower stress is taken into account to scrutinize which behavioral strategies of leaders have a positive impact on the amount of follower stress and which strategies do not or even have an inverse impact. In study two the daily variability of leadership behaviors is highlighted and in study three an objective indicator of stress measurement is implemented. In summary this dissertation extends existing research on stress-related antecedents as well as consequences of full-range leadership behaviors. The contribution to the field is to identify stress-related preconditions of (transformational) leadership behavior to gain a better understanding of the role stress may play in the genesis of leader behaviors within organizations. At the same time, the dissertation offers important insights into stress-related consequences of (full-range) leadership behaviors. Moreover, mediating mechanisms through the lens of the job demands-resources model were outlined to further specify the relation between leader behaviors and work stress. In sum, results show that stress impairs leaders’ behaviors, which has important consequences on followers’ stress levels (on a subjective as well as objective level of measurement). Taken together, the dissertation helps to close current research gaps and to extend knowledge in the context of stress-related antecedents as well as outcomes of supervisor behaviors.