Enhancing Employee Self-Care
The Moderating Effect of Personal Initiative on Health-Specific Leadership
Abstract
Abstract. The present study investigates the relationship between health-specific leadership and employee burnout. Health-specific leadership is a domain-specific leadership style that is characterized by the focus of leaders on employee well-being and their intentional support of employee health. Following the theory, I argue that managers influence employee burnout not only directly but also indirectly by encouraging employees to take care of their own health. Further, I extend the scope of previous research and argue that managers’ personal initiative acts as a moderator for health-specific leadership; as indicated by previous research, proactivity is crucial for effective leadership behavior. A cross-sectional questionnaire study (n = 525) was conducted. Health-specific leadership, managers’ personal initiative, employee self-care, and employee burnout symptoms have been measured. A moderated mediation was tested using structural equation modeling. The findings confirm a positive relationship between health-specific leadership and employee burnout. As expected, this relationship is partially mediated by employee self-care. Managers’ personal initiative shows an interaction effect on employee self-care but not on burnout symptoms. The study results verify the concept of health-specific leadership and highlight the importance of proactive leadership behavior as a facilitator for health-specific leadership. Finally, implications for leadership research and practice are provided.
References
1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
(2011). A meta-analysis of burnout with job demands, resources, and attitudes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 549–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.03.007
(2003). Innovation is not enough: Climates for initiative and psychological safety, process innovations, and firm performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24, 45–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.Published
(2002). Self-care in medical education: Effectiveness of health-habits interventions for first-year medical students. Academic Medicine, 77, 911–917. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200209000-00023
(1977). Social learning theory. Oxford, UK: Prentice-Hall.
(1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
(1993). The proactive component of organizational behavior: A measure and correlates. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 14, 103–118. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030140202
(2000).
(Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis . In K. J. KleinS. W. J. KozlowskiEds., Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations: Foundations, extensions, and new directions (pp. 349–381). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.2011). The global economic burden of non-communicable diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum.
(2016).
(The relationship between leadership and health: A comparison of general and health-focused leadership approaches . In M. WienckeM. CacaceS. FischerEds., Healthy at work – Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 87–102). Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32331-22016). Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf die Gesundheit von Berufstätigen: Eine bevölkerungsrepräsentative Studie in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
([Impact of digitalization on employee health: A representative study in Germany] . St. Gallen, Switzerland: Universität St. Gallen.2017). Weissbuch Arbeit 4.0
. ([White paper Work 4.0] . Berlin, Germany: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales.1998). Managerial stress und burnout. A collaborative international study (CISMS). Die deutsche Untersuchung (Vol. 52). Munich, Germany: Lehrstuhl für Psychologie, Technische Universität.
(2003). Occupational wellbeing and performance: A review of organisational health research. Australian Psychologist, 38, 118–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050060310001707117
(2000). Proactive behavior in organizations. Journal of Management, 26, 435–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600304
(2000). Charismatic leadership viewed from above: The impact of proactive personality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 63–75. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(200002)21:1<63::AID-JOB8>3.0.CO;2-J
(2013). Making things happen through challenging goals: Leader proactivity, trust, and business-unit performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98, 540–549. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031807
(2007). Leadership in workplace health promotion projects: 1- and 2-year effects on long-term work attendance. The European Journal of Public Health, 17, 471–476. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckm004
(2007). Personal initiative, commitment and affect at work. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 80, 601–622. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317906X171442
(2010). Examining the comparative incidence and costs of physical and mental health-related disabilities in an employed population. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 52, 758–762. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0b013e3181e8cfb5
(2014). Incidence rates of sickness absence related to mental disorders: A systematic literature review. BMC Public Health, 14, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-205
(2001). The concept of personal initiative: An overview of validity studies. Human Performance, 14, 97–124. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327043HUP1401_06
(2002). Rethinking the effects of stressors: A longitudinal study on personal initiative. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7, 221–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.7.3.221
(2011). Relationships between psychological, physical, and behavioural health and work performance: A review and meta-analysis. Work and Stress, 25, 185–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.609035
(2011). Diagnose gesundheitsförderlicher Führung - Das Instrument “Health-oriented Leadership”
([Diagnosing health supportive leadership - the instrument “Health-oriented Leadership”] . In B. BaduraA. DuckiH. SchröderK. MaccoEds., Fehlzeiten-Report 2011. Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, 3–13.2014).
(The impact of health-oriented leadership on follower health: Development and test of a new instrument measuring health-promoting leadership . Zeitschrift für Personalforschung (pp. 139–161). 28. https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002214028001082001). Personal Initiative: An active performance concept for work in the 21st century. Research in Organizational Behavior, 23, 133–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(01)23005-6
(1997). The concept of personal initiative: Operationalization, reliability and validity in two German samples. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 70, 139–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1997.tb00639.x
(2007). Making things happen: Reciprocal relationships between work characteristics and personal initiative in a four-wave longitudinal structural equation model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1084–1102. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1084
(2016). Personal initiative training for small business owners. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 5, 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2016.01.001
(2014). Increasing personal initiative in small business managers or owners leads to entrepreneurial success: A theory-based controlled randomized field intervention for evidence-based management. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 13, 354–379. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2013.0234
(2016). The impact of demographic change on European regions. Brussel, Belgium: European Union.
(2014). Health–relevant leadership behaviour: A comparison of leadership constructs. Zeitschrift für Personalforschung, 28, 117–138. https://doi.org/10.1688/ZfP-2014-01-Gregersen
(2015). How do mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of mediation studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 37, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2015.01.006
(2011). Health-specific leadership: Is there an association between leader consideration for the health of employees and their strain and well-being? Work & Stress, 25, 108–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.595947
(2016). Using meta-analytic path analysis to test theoretical predictions in health behavior: An illustration based on meta-analyses of the theory of planned behavior. Preventive Medicine, 89, 154–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.05.020
(2008). Positive gain spirals at work: From job resources to work engagement, personal initiative and work-unit innovativeness. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73, 78–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.01.003
(2017). Leadership and stress: A meta-analytic review. Leadership Quarterly, 28, 178–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.10.006
(2013).
(Mental health and work . In N. MethaO. MurphyEds., Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer 2013 (pp. 157–169). London, UK: Department of Health.2006). Increase in sickness absence with psychiatric diagnosis in Norway: A general population-based epidemiologic study of age, gender and regional distribution. BMC Medicine, 4, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-4-19
(2014). Effects of leadership style, creativity technique and personal initiative on employee creativity. British Journal of Management, 25, 209–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00849.x
(2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.6.4.307
(1993).
(Conservation of resources: A general stress theory applied to burnout . In W. B. SchaufeliC. MaslachT. MarekEds., Series in applied psychology: Social issues and questions. Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research (pp. 115–133). Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis.2016). Gesundheitsorientierte Führung in der Altenpflege. Bedeutung sozialer Belastungen und Ressourcen für die Gesundheit und das Commitment der Mitarbeiter
([Health-specific leadership in geriatric care. Relevance of social demands and resources for employee health and commitment] . Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie, 60, 199–211. https://doi.org/10.1026/0932-4089/a0002232010). Multilevel analysis. Techniques and applications (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
(2016). Alternatives to multilevel modeling for the analysis of clustered data. The Journal of Experimental Education, 84, 175–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2014.952397
(2000). Maximum likelihood estimation of latent interaction effects with the LMS method. Psychometrika, 65, 457–474. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02296338
(2015). Setting a good example: Supervisors as work-life-friendly role models within the context of boundary management. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20, 82–92. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037890
(2014). Gesundheitsreport 2014.
([Health report 2014] . Hamburg, Germany: DAK Gesundheit.2016). Managers as role models for health: Moderators of the relationship of transformational leadership with employee exhaustion and cynicism. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22, 492–502. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000044
(2012). Depression in hospital-employed nurses. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 26, 177–182. https://doi.org/10.1097/NUR.0b013e3182503ef0
(2010). Stress and coping in Australian nurses: A systematic review. International Nursing Review, 57, 22–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-7657.2009.00765.x
(2001). The transtheoretical model of behavior change: A meta-analysis of applications to physical activity and exercise. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 23, 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2304_2
(2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
(2015). Estimating and interpreting latent variable interactions: A tutorial for applying the latent moderated structural equations method. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 39, 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025414552301.Estimating
(2016). Leadership, followers’ mental health and job performance in organizations: A comprehensive meta-analysis from an occupational health perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38, 327–350. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2124
(2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
(2010). Conducting organizational-level occupational health interventions: What works? Work & Stress, 24, 234–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.515393
(2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
(2008).
(The transtheoretical model and stages of change . In K. GlanzB. K. RimerK. ViswanathEds., Health behavior and health education. Theory, research, and practice (4th ed., pp. 97–121). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.2017). Health oriented leadership. Instrument zur Erfassung gesundheitsförderlicher Führung
([Health oriented leadership. An instrument to measure health promoting leadership] . Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.2017). Anforderungen an Führung im Kontext flexibler Arbeitswelten
([Requirements for leaders in context of flexible workplaces] . Zentralblatt für Arbeitsmedizin, Arbeitsschutz und Ergonomie, 68, 118–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40664-017-0226-92009). Transformational and transactional leadership and followers’ chronic stress. Leadership Review, 9, 35–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9322-9
(1996).
(Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS) . In C. MaslachS. E. JacksonM. LeiterEds., Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.2003). Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: Tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. Methods of Psychological Research Online, 8, 23–74.
(2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. Leadership Quarterly, 24, 138–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.09.001
(2008). Does personal initiative training work as a stress management intervention? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 13, 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.3.259
(2016).
(Stress in the workplace . In W. C. CockerhamEd., The new Blackwell companion to medical sociology (pp. 268–286). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444314786.ch122010). Are leaders’ well-being, behaviours and style associated with the affective well-being of their employees? A systematic review of three decades of research. Work & Stress, 24, 107–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.495262
(2016). Health promoting leadership practices in four Norwegian industries. Health Promotion International, 31, 936–945. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dav077
(2010). Born to burnout: A meta-analytic path model of personality, job burnout, and work outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 76, 487–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.01.003
(2014). Challenges and needs for support in managing occupational health and safety from managers’ viewpoints. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 4, 31–51. https://doi.org/10.19154/njwls.v4i3.4178
(2010). Workers’ personal initiative as a moderator of the relations between job characteristics and well-being. Psychological Reports, 107, 255–264. https://doi.org/10.2466/01.02.09.20.PR0.107.4.255-264
(2010). Employee proactivity in organizations: A comparative meta-analysis of emergent proactive constructs. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 83, 275–300. https://doi.org/10.1348/09637910x502359
(2004). Leadership behavior and subordinate well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 9, 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.9.2.165
(2009). Führungskräfte und ihre Verantwortung für die Gesundheit ihrer Mitarbeiter
([Leaders and their responsibility for employee health] . Wirtschaftspsychologie, 2, 74–89.1989). Lack of method variance in self-reported affect and perceptions at work: Reality or artifact? Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 462–468. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.3.462
(2014). Is transformational leadership healthy for employees? A multilevel analysis in 16 nations. Zeitschrift für Personalforschung, 28, 24–51. https://doi.org/10.1688/ZfP-2014-01-Zwingmann
(