Fostering organizational health

Bruhn, Katharina; Krick, Annika; Felfe, Jörg

doi:10.3390/su17177581

Fostering organizational health

Dyadic patterns of leaders’ StaffCare and employees’ SelfCare in hybrid work

Publication date

2025-08-22

Document type

Forschungsartikel

Author

Bruhn, Katharina

Krick, Annika

Felfe, Jörg

Organisational unit

Arbeits-, Organisations- und Wirtschaftspsychologie

DOI

10.3390/su17177581

URI

https://openhsu.ub.hsu-hh.de/handle/10.24405/20975

Publisher

MDPI

Series or journal

Sustainability

ISSN

2071-1050

Periodical volume

17

Periodical issue

17

Article ID

7581

Peer-reviewed

✅

Part of the university bibliography

✅

Language

English

Abstract

The Special Issue on Health, Well-Being and Sustainability invites research that integrates behavioral, cultural, and systemic approaches to fostering sustainable lifestyles within work environments. This study focuses on the role of leadership in promoting employee health and healthy lifestyles, which are central dimensions of the validated Health-oriented Leadership framework. Although previous research has assumed that high levels of leader StaffCare lead to high levels of employee SelfCare and consequently to better health outcomes, inconsistent dyadic patterns have rarely been examined. In this study, we investigate dyadic relationship patterns between leaders’ StaffCare and employees’ SelfCare jointly creating a sustainable workplace health system in hybrid contexts. Using Latent Profile Analysis on a sample of N = 1104, we identify consistent and inconsistent patterns, their health and motivational outcomes after three months, as well as potential antecedents in terms of working conditions for profile membership. The consistent dyads showed expected results: high StaffCare and high SelfCare led to high health and motivation outcomes, while low StaffCare and low SelfCare resulted in the lowest outcomes. New findings emerged in inconsistent dyads. In the low leaders’ StaffCare and high employees’ SelfCare dyad (Bystanders & Health Proactives), leaders recognized risks but did not actively promote health measures. However, proactive employees who engage in SelfCare behaviorally compensate for insufficient leader support but at a motivational cost. In contrast, the high leaders’ StaffCare and low employees’ SelfCare dyad (Health Sacrificers) included leaders who supported employees’ health but neglected their own, resulting in lower health but higher motivation among employees. Job demands and resources partly predicted group membership and can offer practical implications for building work environments that foster employees’ well-being and health. The findings offer insights into inconsistent leadership behaviors and provide guidance for enhancing employee well-being, particularly in hybrid work environments.

Description

This article belongs to the Special Issue "Health and Sustainable Lifestyle: Balancing Work and Well-Being" of "Sustainability"

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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