Leadership Styles and Leader Well-Being: A Mediation Study

Abstract

Studies examining the effects of leadership styles on leader well-being have, in the past decade, increased in number. However, up until now, mechanisms mediating these relationships have been largely ignored. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to investigate whether subordinate functioning, in the form of follower OCB, performance, and bullying, would act as either a job demand or a resource for leaders, depending on the positive or negative valence of the follower behaviour, and thus influence the effects of leadership styles on leader well-being related outcomes. A total of 346 participants in supervisory roles, primarily recruited through the crowdsourcing platform MTurk, filled out an online questionnaire containing 146 questions related to leadership styles, subordinate functioning, and well-being at work. The data was analysed using the logistic regression PROCESS macro for SPSS. Results indicated that subordinate functioning did, in fact, demonstrate mediation in many of the relationships between leadership styles and leader well-being, and that the JD-R model could serve as a useful tool in explaining these mediations. Although further studies are needed to fully understand the relationships between leadership styles and leader well-being, the present study not only provides a springboard for identifying mediating mechanisms in future studies, but also provides some promising findings. Thus, future studies should focus on replicating the present findings as well as identifying other mediating mechanisms in the relationship between leadership styles and leader well-being to form a more holistic understanding of the consequences of leadership – for the benefit of organisational interventions and leadership training.