The influence of work context on the leadership-wellbeing relationship
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2022-07-19
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en
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This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the influence of work context, i.e., the situational opportunities and constraints that affect the occurrence and meaning of organizational behavior as well as functional relationships between variables (Johns, 2006) on leadership behavior, employee wellbeing and their relationship, by answering the research question: ‘how does work context influence leadership behavior, employee wellbeing and their relationship?’ Data from 12 semi-structured interviews with blue- and white-collar workers and leaders shows how work context influences 1) the behavior that leaders show, 2) what followers describe as antecedents to their wellbeing and 3) the relationships between different leadership behaviors and antecedents to follower wellbeing. Delegating and informing leadership behaviors only emerged in white-collar contexts. White-collar workers described similar antecedents to wellbeing than blue-collar workers, although the meaning of these antecedents differs for both groups of workers. Partly, explanations for these differences were found in the work contexts. Also, leadership behaviors that affect certain wellbeing antecedents in one work context, were found to not necessarily affect the same antecedents in the other context. Based on the analysis of qualitative data, two conceptual models are proposed to provide an in-depth and context-specific proposition of the association between different leadership behaviors and antecedents to the wellbeing of followers. Descriptions of each leadership behavior and their context-dependent impact on these antecedents are also included. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed, as well as some recommendations for future research.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen