• Project number: F 2549
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Completed Project

Description:

The aim of the project was to examine the relationship between leadership behavior and the health of followers and leaders. Another focus is on leader-follower interaction. Additionally, the mental health of leaders is a central issue, as this group of employees has so far received little attention in occupational safety. Overall, the project results should provide information on how to develop healthy and effective leadership and thus contribute to the development of healthy organisations.

In this project, data was collected across multiple organisational levels. In addition, data from followers and leaders was collected over time in a diary study.

A key finding is that leaders belong to a large extent to a high-risk group. Particularly, they have a reduced level of health and, in extreme cases, tend to engage in destructive leadership. This is the result of a combination of low psychological contract fulfillment and high work intensification. Furthermore, the results suggest that the relationship between their own leadership behavior and the health of leaders may also depend on their followers. Finally, it was shown that both leadership and the health of leaders and followers vary on a daily basis over time. Thus, authentic leadership behavior was only positively associated with the health of followers if the leader was consistent in his or her leadership behavior over time.

Overall, the project results suggest an integrative approach to understanding leadership and health at work at different levels (time, individual, team, leader). This should be taken into account for behavioral- and context-related prevention measures. In particular, leaders should be given greater focus in prevention measures.