Pischel, Sarah Laura

Leaders play a crucial role in employees’ health and job satisfaction. When employees show early warning signs that their physical or mental health is at risk, leaders’ responsibility gains even more importance. Recent health-specific leadership approaches (health-oriented leadership; HoL) emphasize the importance of leaders ability to perceive employees’ warning signals (staff care awareness) to take appropriate action (staff care behavior). However, little is known about the factors facilitating or hindering the transfer from leaders’ awareness to concrete behaviors. In an experimental study (N = 91), we examined and manipulated antecedents of staff care behavior: (a) employees’ disclosure, (b) leaders’ HoL skills, and (c) leaders’ goal conflict in a 2 × 2 × 2 mixed factorial design. Employees’ disclosure and leaders’ skills were positively related to staff care behavior. Leaders’ goal conflict was not directly related to staff care behavior but had an indirect effect and diminished the positive relationship between disclosure and staff care behavior. The findings deepen the theoretical understanding of the HoL concept. By studying the influence of employees’ disclosure on staff care behavior, our study complements a follower-centered perspective. We provide practical recommendations for workplace health promotion and how leaders’ staff care behavior can be fostered.

Due to growing demands, there is an increase in depression and burnout causing sickness absence and early retirement. Detecting depression and burnout at an early stage is a crucial task for leaders to allow for early support and prevent more severe illnesses. Within the health-oriented leadership concept, awareness is the ability to recognize followers’ warning signals as a potential health risk. Although it is widely accepted that awareness is a precondition to taking appropriate action, it is yet unclear to what extent leaders recognize the warning signals of followers and which factors facilitate or impede awareness. In an experimental study (N = 54) and a survey study (N = 215) we examined antecedents of awareness in followers and leaders: (a) clarity of displayed warning signals in followers, (b) leaders’ stressors, (c) leaders’ autonomy. Even under favorable conditions, only about half of the leaders recognized warning signals as a health risk. Leaders showed lower awareness during times of high stress and low autonomy and when followers displayed less clear warning signals. Autonomy moderated the effect of stress (workload) on awareness, but there was no buffering effect as expected. The findings deepen the theoretical understanding of awareness and suggest that leaders need to know how their awareness may be impeded. We provide practical recommendations for human resource management on how leaders’ awareness can be fostered.