Who has the most to lose? How ICT demands undermine health-oriented leadership

Publication date
2024-03-17
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Klebe, Laura
Organisational unit
DOI
URI
ISSN
Series or journal
Applied psychology
Periodical volume
73
Periodical issue
4
First page
1893
Last page
1915
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Keyword
Digital leadership
Germany
Health
Health-oriented leadership
ICT hassles
Abstract
Research shows positive effects of Health-oriented Leadership (HoL) on followers' health. However, irritation elicited by ICT hassles may reduce leaders' capacity to engage in staff care. This study examines whether ICT hassles are associated with staff care (i.e., health-promoting follower-directed leadership) via irritation and whether particularly those engaging in self-care suffer more or less from ICT demands. A moderated mediation model was tested at three measurement points (N = 582 leaders). As expected, results show more irritation for leaders with more ICT hassles which is further associated with less staff care. Moreover, the positive relationship between ICT hassles and irritation was stronger for leaders displaying high self-care. In the same vein, the negative relationship between irritation and staff care was stronger for leaders engaging in self-care. Findings provide the first evidence that ICT hassles are negatively related to staff care via leaders' irritation. Leaders who engage in self-care show less irritation and higher staff care but suffer more from ICT demands. To promote leaders' health and staff care in digital working contexts, organizations should provide reliable IT equipment and technical support. The study ties in with research on digital leadership and its antecedents and offers a new view on the interplay of demands and resources.
Description
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Cite as
Klebe, L., Felfe, J., Krick, A., & Tautz, D. (2024). Who has the most to lose? How ICT demands undermine health-oriented leadership. Applied Psychology, 73(4), 1893–1915. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12530
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Published version
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