Expectations of Leaders' Mental Health.

Understanding the causes and consequences of varying mental health experiences in the workplace has gained significant research attention, yet little is known about the assumptions people hold about mental health at work, especially with regard to the expectations people may have of their leaders' mental health. Given people tend to romanticize organizational leaders and have expectations regarding prototypical leader attributes, we consider whether people also hold expectations of leaders' mental health. Drawing on implicit leadership theories, we propose that people will expect leaders experience better mental health compared to those occupying other organizational roles (e.g., subordinates). Using mixed methods, Study 1 (n = 85) showed that people expect that those in leadership roles enjoy higher well-being and experience less mental illness than those in non-leadership roles. Using vignettes in which an employee's health was manipulated, Study 2 (n = 200) demonstrated that mental illness is incongruent with leadership prototypes. Using vignettes in which organizational role was manipulated, Study 3 (n = 104) showed that compared to subordinates, leaders are perceived as having more job resources and demands, but people expect that it is leaders' greater access to organizational resources that facilitates their well-being and inhibits mental illness. These findings extend the occupational mental health and leadership literatures by identifying a novel attribute upon which leaders are evaluated. We conclude by considering the consequences of leader mental health expectations for organizational decision-makers, leaders, and employees aspiring to lead.

Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence, Partner Interference, and Family Supportive Supervision on Victims' Work Withdrawal.

This study investigates the link between intimate partner violence (IPV) and work withdrawal (including absence frequency, partial absenteeism, and turnover intentions) in the context of partners' interference with victims at work and family supportive supervision of victims at work. Using the work-home resources model, we propose that (1) partner interference with victims at work will worsen the relationship between IPV and work withdrawal, and (2) family supportive supervision of victims at work will alleviate this relationship. Our analysis of a sample of 249 female employees found a three-way interaction between IPV, partner interference, and family supportive supervision on victims' absence frequency: IPV victims whose partners interfered with their work had lower absence frequency when they received high (compared to low) levels of family supportive supervision at work. Importantly, family supportive supervision was only related to lower absence frequency when both IPV and partner interference were present. This suggests that organizations have a unique opportunity to reduce the negative effects of IPV and partner interference not only for the victim but also for other employees who are indirectly affected. Our findings have significant implications for organizations, which have ethical, legal, and practical responsibilities to create a safe working environment for all employees.

Reconciling general transformational leadership and safety-specific transformational leadership: A paradox perspective.

INTRODUCTION: Research exploring the relationship between transformational leadership and safety has used transformational leadership in context-free (e.g., "general transformational leadership," or GTL) and context-specific forms (e.g., "safety-specific transformational leadership," or SSTL), assuming these constructs are theoretically and empirically equivalent. In this paper, a paradox theory is drawn on (Schad, Lewis, Raisch, & Smith, 2016; Smith & Lewis, 2011) to reconcile the relationship between these two forms of transformational leadership and safety. METHOD: This is done by: (a) investigating whether GTL and SSTL are empirically distinguishable; (b) testing the relative importance of GTL and SSTL in explaining variance in context-free work outcomes (i.e., in-role performance, organizational citizenship behaviors) and context-specific (i.e., safety compliance, safety participation); and (c) examining the extent to which perceived safety concern in the work environment renders GTL and SSTL distinguishable. RESULTS: Two studies (one cross-sectional, one short-term longitudinal) show that GTL and SSTL are psychometrically distinct albeit highly correlated. Furthermore, SSTL explained statistically more variance than GTL in both safety participation and organizational citizenship behaviors, whereas GTL explained more variance in in-role performance than did SSTL. However, GTL and SSTL were only distinguishable in low-concern contexts but not high-concern contexts. CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: These findings challenge the "either-or" (vs "both-and") approach to considering safety and performance, cautioning researchers to consider nuanced differences in context-free and context-specific forms of leadership and to avoid further proliferation of often redundant context-specific operationalizations of leadership.

Human resource management practices and organizational injury rates.

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the extent to which five human resource management (HRM) practices-systematic selection, extensive training, performance appraisal, high relative compensation, and empowerment-simultaneously predicted later organizational-level injury rates. METHODS: Specifically, the association between these HRM practices (assessed via on-site audits by independent observers) with organizational injury rates collected by a national regulatory agency one and two years later were modeled. RESULTS: Results from 49 single-site UK organizations indicated that, after controlling for industry-level risk, organization size, and the other four HRM practices, only empowerment predicted lower subsequent organizational-level injury rates. Practical Applications: Findings from the current study have important implications for the design of HRM systems and for organizational-level policies and practices associated with better employee safety.

Indirect effects of obstructive sleep apnea treatments on work withdrawal: A quasi-experimental treatment outcome study.

The effect of sleep on work is now receiving appropriate research attention, yet most results have been based on community (i.e., nonclinical) populations. Based on previous findings that clinical treatment for diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea benefits sleep quality, we hypothesized that sleep quality would mediate the effects of such treatment on work withdrawal behaviors (i.e., emotional exhaustion, cognitive distraction, work neglect, and partial absenteeism). A total of 125 adults with potential sleep apnea, who were referred to a midsized hospital's sleep disorders laboratory, participated in this 3-wave (pretest, posttest 1 month following initial treatment, and a follow-up 3 months later), quasi-experimental study. Clinical assessment using pretest data resulted in 83 participants being diagnosed with sleep apnea and receiving treatment (i.e., continuous positive airway pressure, n = 62; or positional therapy, n = 21); 42 patients who were not diagnosed with sleep apnea comprised the control group. Consistent with our hypotheses, treatment positively affected sleep quality, which in turn decreased emotional exhaustion, cognitive distraction, and partial absenteeism (but not work neglect). We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on sleep and its work-related consequences and organizational practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

What happens at home does not stay at home: The role of family and romantic partner conflict in destructive leadership.

Why leaders behave the way they do is of considerable importance. Our goal in this research was to understand how family-to-work conflict and romantic relationship conflict influence two different forms of destructive leadership, namely, abusive supervision and passive leadership. To do so, we invoke the conservation of resources theory. One hundred twenty-three leader-follower dyads participated. Leaders completed questionnaires on their own family-to-work conflict and romantic relationship conflict, depressive symptoms, and cognitive distraction. Their followers rated their abusive supervision and passive leadership. With the use of Hayes's PROCESS program, depressive symptoms mediated the effects of family-to-work conflict and romantic relationship conflict on abusive supervision, whereas cognitive distraction mediated the effects of family-to-work conflict on passive leadership. Implications and several directions for further research are offered.

Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and passive leadership: The mediating role of daytime sleepiness.

Passive leadership is attracting empirical interest with the detrimental effects of this type of leadership on a broad array of individual and organizational outcomes becoming apparent. However, just why leaders would engage in this type of nonleadership has received less research attention. We investigate whether and how leaders' attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with passive leadership. Using a framework specifying how the physiology of sleepiness impacts the workplace, we hypothesize that leaders' ADHD is associated with passive leadership indirectly through daytime sleepiness. After controlling for leaders' age, gender, and preclinical symptoms of depression and anxiety, standard ordinary least squares regression procedures were implemented through Hayes' PROCESS models. Multisource data from 98 leader-follower groups (M number of followers per leader = 4.38, SD = 1.78) showed that the effects of leaders' ADHD symptoms on passive leadership were mediated by daytime sleepiness. Conceptual, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

It hurts me too: Examining the relationship between male gender harassment and observers' well-being, attitudes, and behaviors.

The goal of this study was to examine the costs associated with witnessing the sexual harassment of a male colleague. More specifically, we investigate (a) whether observed male gender harassment is related to psychological and physical health, and negative and positive job-related behaviors and attitudes, and (b) the mediating roles of discrete negative emotions (anger, fear) and identity-based evaluations (collective self-esteem). We explore these questions in a sample of men and women employed in "blue collar" professions. Our results show that the relationships between observed male gender harassment and psychological and physical health symptoms, withdrawal and workplace deviance, and affective commitment, were indirect and mediated via witness anger. Moreover, witnessing the gender harassment of a male colleague was also indirectly related to workplace deviance via collective self-esteem among women. Implications for theory, research, and practice are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record

The impact of positive and negative intraoperative surgeons' leadership behaviors on surgical team performance.

BACKGROUND: The effects of surgeons' leadership on team performance are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the simultaneous effects of transformational, passive, abusive supervision and over-controlling leadership behaviors by surgeons on surgical team performance. METHODS: Trained observers attended 150 randomly selected operations at a tertiary care teaching hospital. Observers recorded instances of the four leadership behaviors enacted by the surgeon. Postoperatively, team members completed validated questionnaires rating team cohesion and collective efficacy. Multiple regression analyses were computed. Data were analyzed using the complex modeling function in MPlus. RESULTS: Surgeons' abusive supervision was negatively associated with psychological safety (unstandardized B = -0.352, p < 0.01). Both surgeons' abusive supervision (unstandardized B = -0.237, p < 0.01), and over-controlling leadership (unstandardized B = -0.230, p < 0.05) were negatively associated with collective efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to assess the simultaneous effects of surgeons' positive and negative leadership behaviors on intraoperative team performance. Significant effects only surfaced for negative leadership behaviors; transformational leadership did not positively influence team performance.

Leaders' mental health at work: Empirical, methodological, and policy directions.

While employees' mental health is the focus of considerable attention from researchers, the public, and policymakers, leaders' mental health has almost escaped attention. We start by considering several reasons for this, followed by discussions of the effects of leaders' mental health on their own leadership behaviors, the emotional toll of high-quality leadership, and interventions to enhance leaders' mental health. We offer 8 possible directions for future research on leaders' mental health. Finally, we discuss methodological obstacles encountered when investigating leaders' mental health, and policy dilemmas raised by leaders' mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record

If Only my Leader Would just Do Something! Passive Leadership Undermines Employee Well-being Through Role Stressors and Psychological Resource Depletion.

The goal of this study was to develop and test a sequential mediational model explaining the negative relationship of passive leadership to employee well-being. Based on role stress theory, we posit that passive leadership will predict higher levels of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. Invoking Conservation of Resources theory, we further hypothesize that these role stressors will indirectly and negatively influence two aspects of employee well-being, namely overall mental health and overall work attitude, through psychological work fatigue. Using a probability sample of 2467 US workers, structural equation modelling supported the model by showing that role stressors and psychological work fatigue partially mediated the negative relationship between passive leadership and both aspects of employee well-being. The hypothesized, sequential indirect relationships explained 47.9% of the overall relationship between passive leadership and mental health and 26.6% of the overall relationship between passive leadership and overall work attitude. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Scarred for the Rest of My Career? Career-Long Effects of Abusive Leadership on Professional Athlete Aggression and Task Performance.

Based on the contention that leadership has sustained effects on followers even after the leader-follower relationship has ended, we investigated the career-long effects of abusive coach leadership on athlete aggression and task performance. Abusive leadership scores were derived from ratings by two independent raters' evaluations of coaches' biographies, and athlete aggression and task performance data were derived from objective sources. Data were obtained from players (N = 693) and coaches (N = 57) involved in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between the 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 seasons. Controlling for tenure, salary, team winning percentage, and absence due to injuries, multilevel modeling showed that exposure to abusive leadership influenced both the trajectory of psychological aggression and task performance over players' careers. These findings suggest that the effects of abusive leadership extend far longer than currently acknowledged, thus furthering our understanding of the nature and effects of abusive leadership.

Persistent exposure to poverty during childhood limits later leader emergence.

Increasing attention is being paid to the question of why some people emerge as leaders, and we investigated the effects of persistent exposure to poverty during childhood on later leadership role occupancy. We hypothesized that exposure to poverty would limit later leadership role occupancy through the indirect effects of the quality of schooling and personal mastery, and that gender would moderate the effects of exposure to poverty and personal mastery. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Youth provided multiwave and multisource data for a sample of 4,536 (1,533 leaders; 3,003 nonleaders). Both school quality and personal mastery mediated the effects of family poverty status on later leadership role occupancy. Although gender did not moderate the effects of poverty on leadership role occupancy, the indirect effects of early exposure to poverty on leadership role occupancy through personal mastery were moderated by gender. Conceptual and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Intimate partner aggression and women's work outcomes.

Using conservation of resources theory, we examined the relationship between intimate partner aggression enacted against heterosexual women and 3 types of work-related outcomes for these women: withdrawal while at work (i.e., cognitive distraction, work neglect), withdrawal from work (i.e., partial absenteeism, intentions to quit), and performance. In Study 1, we compared withdrawal both at and from work across 3 clinically categorized groups of women (n = 50), showing that experiencing physical aggression is related to higher work neglect. We replicated and extended these findings in Study 2 using a community sample of employed women (n = 249) by considering the incremental variance explained by both physical aggression and psychological aggression on these same outcomes. Results showed that physical aggression predicted higher levels of withdrawal both at and from work, with psychological aggression predicting additional variance in partial absenteeism over and above the effects of physical aggression. Study 3 extended the model to include academic performance as an outcome in a sample of female college students (n = 122) in dating relationships. Controlling for the women's conscientiousness, psychological aggression predicted lower academic performance after accounting for the effects of physical aggression. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these results, as well as directions for future research.

Harm to Those Who Serve: Effects of Direct and Vicarious Customer-Initiated Workplace Aggression.

While there is a large body of research on the effects of being a direct target of workplace aggression, there is far less research on the vicarious experience of aggression at work, despite the fact that more people experience workplace aggression vicariously (i.e., observe it or hear about it) than they do directly. In this study, we develop and test a model of the effects of direct and vicarious exposure to aggression that is directed at employees by customers. Structural equation modeling provided support for the proposed model, in which direct and vicarious workplace aggression influences the perceived risk of future workplace aggression, which in turn affects organizational attachment (affective commitment and turnover intentions) and individual well-being (psychological and physical). Conceptual research and policy implications are discussed.

Revisiting the comparative outcomes of workplace aggression and sexual harassment.

We focus on the differential outcomes associated with experiencing workplace aggression and sexual harassment by a supervisor. To do so, we identify and empirically address several issues within current workplace aggression and sexual harassment research, including the need to (a) conceptualize their multidimensional nature, (b) contrast comparable dimensions between the two, (c) recognize and control for covictimization, and (d) consider the role of target gender. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and dominance analyses on a sample of 467 employed women (M age = 40 years). Results showed that all forms of sexual harassment were more strongly associated with work withdrawal and psychological well-being than comparable forms of workplace aggression. Nonphysical workplace aggression accounted for more of the variance in attitudinal outcomes (job, coworker and supervisor satisfaction, intent to quit, commitment) than nonphysical sexual harassment. Sexual harassment accounted for more of the variance than workplace aggression in all outcomes when the harassment and aggression involved some form of threatened or actual physical contact. Conceptual and methodological issues are discussed.

The application of transformational leadership theory to parenting: questionnaire development and implications for adolescent self-regulatory efficacy and life satisfaction.

We draw upon transformational leadership theory to develop an instrument to measure transformational parenting for use with adolescents. First, potential items were generated that were developmentally appropriate and evidence for content validity was provided through the use of focus groups with parents and adolescents. We subsequently provide evidence for several aspects of construct validity of measures derived from the Transformational Parenting Questionnaire (TPQ). Data were collected from 857 adolescents (M(age) = 14.70 years), who rated the behaviors of their mothers and fathers. The results provided support for a second-order measurement model of transformational parenting. In addition, positive relationships between mothers' and fathers' transformational parenting behaviors, adolescents' self-regulatory efficacy for physical activity and healthy eating, and life satisfaction were found. The results of this research support the application of transformational leadership theory to parenting behaviors, as well as the construct validity of measures derived from the TPQ.

Comparing perceived injustices from supervisors and romantic partners as predictors of aggression.

To examine the predictive effects of perceived injustice in two different interpersonal relationships (i.e., working relationship with a supervisor, romantic relationship with a partner) on aggression enacted in those relationships, we computed a series of multilevel regressions on 62 heterosexual couples with all 124 partners employed part-time and working for different supervisors. Higher levels of perceived supervisor injustice predicted higher supervisor-directed aggression, whereas higher levels of perceived partner injustice predicted lower supervisor-directed aggression. An interaction between perceived partner injustice and anger predicted higher levels of partner-directed aggression. Implications and recommendations for future research on the relationship specificity of perceived injustice are discussed.

Beyond status: relating status inequality to performance and health in teams.

Status structures in organizations are ubiquitous yet largely ignored in organizational research. We offer a conceptualization of team status inequality, or the extent to which status positions on a team are dispersed. Status inequality is hypothesized to be negatively related to individual performance and physical health for low-status individuals when uncooperative behavior is high. Trajectories of the outcomes across time are also explored. Analyses using multilevel modeling largely support our hypotheses in a sample of National Basketball Association players across six time points from 2000 to 2005.