Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg
University, Mannheim, Germany
b
Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
c
Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Abstract.
BACKGROUND: Leadership behavior may both serve as a supportive resource or as a source of psychological distress in the
workplace.
OBJECTIVE: Transformational leadership (TL), a behavior of superiors that fosters motivation, empowerment and a sense
of teamness, has been associated with employee well-being, but the mechanisms that underlie these effects are unclear. We
therefore explored the relationship between TL and stress by examining potential mediating roles for established organizational
and personal resources.
METHODS: We used cross-sectional data on TL, psychosocial resources and employee strain from a company wide survey.
Linear regression and structural equation modeling assessed potential mediation following the method outlined by Baron and
Kenny.
RESULTS: In a convenience sample consisting of mostly white-collar employees (n = 320, 42.6% male), we observed a relationship between TL and employees perceived work-related stress that was fully mediated by protective psychosocial resources
( = 0.33, p < 0.01). Additionally, we found that TL positively affected these resources ( = 0.61; p < 0.01) and that absence
of resources led to more psychological strain ( = 0.54, p < 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: Transformational leadership seems to be associated with lower stress among employees and a perception of
more available psychosocial resources. These findings indicate that TL might serve as a valuable focus for tailored interventions
to improve employee health.
Keywords: Stress, workplace, leadership, mediation
1. Introduction
Many adults spend a substantial proportion of their
daily life in the workplace [13], making it an impor Corresponding author: Burkhard Schmidt, Mannheim Institute
of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty
Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Ludolf-Krehl-Str. 7-11, D-68167
Mannheim, Germany. Tel.: +49 621 383 6987; Fax: +49 621 383
9920; E-mail: burkhard.schmidt@medma.uni-heidelberg.de.
tant setting for public health research. Previous studies, for example, have demonstrated that psychosocial conditions in the workplace and resulting stress
(e.g. high job demands and job decision latitude, lack
of social support, abusive leadership) may contribute
to chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease, diabetes or asthma) or severe mental health problems
(e.g. burnout or depression) [48] and are linked to
an increased risk of mortality for all major causes [9].
The importance of leadership in general on possible
316
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
317
2. Methods
We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data collected in May 2009 from a larger, federallyfunded research project in which several companies
participated. The sole inclusion criterion for the current study was that a workplace health promotion intervention was in place, enabling the collection and
analysis of health related data from employees. The
only site meeting this criterion was a large provider
of professional services in Germany, with a white collar workforce comprised of employees with an academic or administrative background. All employees of
the company were invited to complete an online ques-
318
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
We used Likert ratings (1 = do not agree; 5 = strongly agree) from subscales of the German version of the
Transformational Leadership Inventory (TLI) [42
44] to develop a composite score for Transformational
Leadership. The first subscale, Identifying and articulating a vision (TLI-AV, 5 items), assesses whether
leaders have established a vision for the workgroup
and are able to motivate employees with a clear understanding of where the group is headed. Providing an
appropriate role model (TLI-PAM, 3 items) reflects
whether leaders are perceived as demonstrating exemplary behavior and a practice what you preach mentality. Fostering the acceptance of group goals (TLIFAG, 4 items) reflects the extent to which leaders are
concerned about subordinates being team players and
promote group functioning as a team working toward
a shared goal. Leaders Providing Individualized Support (TLI-IS, 4 items) show respect, appreciation, and
concern for the feelings of individual employees. The
Intellectual stimulation (TLI-ISN, 3 items) subscale
identifies leaders who encourage their employees to
think out of the box or who inspire them to develop
innovative solutions. The sixth subscale Contingent
reward (TLI-CR, 4 items), from a measure of transactional leadership assesses the extent to which leaders
recognize performance, give positive feedback and are
aware of potential imbalances in effort and reward. We
elected to include these subscale items given past work
demonstrating significant intercorrelations and interaction with subscales assessing transformational leadership [34,44,45]. The TLI has the advantages of high internal consistency ( = 0.97 for the composite score)
and relative brevity (n = 23 items).
2.2. Dependent variable
The dependent variable psychological strain was a
composite value derived from ratings on four subscales
from the standardized German version of the Symptom Check List (SCL-90R), a validated clinical screening tool for stress [46]. Subscales included Somatization (12 items), Depression (13 items), Anxiety
(10 items) and Interpersonal sensitivity (9 items).
High ratings on the Somatization subscale indicate
high levels of stress-induced pain or other symptoms
(e.g. headaches, breast pain, sickness, hot flashes etc.).
The Depression subscale reflects evidence of significant mental strain (e.g. reduced sexual desire, loneliness, suicidal tendencies, worries etc.). High subscale
scores for Anxiety indicate stress-related disorders
(e.g. tension, sudden shock situations, palpitation with
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
319
Table 1
Correlations of Strain, Leadership and Resources (n = 285)
Factors
1. Psychological strain
2. Transformational Leadership
3. Decision latitude
4. Social Support
5. Organizational culture
6. Employee satisfaction
7. Work life balance
8. Self-Efficacy
9. Meaningfulness
p
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0.24 0.21 0.32 0.26 0.31 0.51 0.43 0.40
0.24
1
0.35 0.46 0.33 0.47 0.14
0.24 0.31
0.21 0.35
1
0.35 0.28 0.43 0.15 0.24 0.31
0.32 0.46 0.35
1
0.24 0.39 0.18 0.21 0.30
0.26 0.33 0.28 0.24
1
0.43 0.15 0.15 0.25
0.31 0.47 0.43 0.39 0.43
1
0.26 0.33 0.52
0.51 0.14
0.15 0.18 0.15 0.26
1
0.46 0.34
0.43 0.24 0.24 0.21 0.15 0.33 0.46
1
0.48
0.40 0.31 0.31 0.30 0.25 0.52 0.34 0.48
1
3. Results
The distribution of composite scores from each subscale was assessed. Although most were normally distributed, skewness in the distribution of the dependent
variable psychosocial strain (SCL90-R) required that
we apply a log transformation to meet the assumption
of data normality for linear models.
Our analysis proceeded in three steps. First, we
examined unadjusted two-tailed correlations between
score means for transformational leadership, psychosocial resources and psychosocial strain. Next, we tested
mediation using the Freedman-Schatzkin test in a series of nested linear regression models. In this test,
a mediating effect is thought to be present when the
t-statistic of the Freedman-Schatzkin test is significant [61]. In the baseline model, the association between transformational leadership and psychological
strain was assessed, accounting for age and sex. In
subsequent models, subscale scores for individual psychosocial resources were added. Change in variance
in the association between transformational leadership and psychological strain represented the extent
to which mediation by a psychosocial resource was
present. The last model included all resources in addition to the baseline model. The final step in the analysis used structural equation modeling to confirm and
quantify the degree of mediation using a method described by Baron and Kenny [62,63]. To improve the
accuracy of this estimate, we used bootstrapping to
generate 1000 samples that provided maximum likelihood estimates for the models and 95% confidence intervals [64]. The bootstrapping approach also allowed
us to generate a p-value for an indirect effect between
320
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
Table 2
Linear Regression with dependent variable Psychological Strain
(n = 285) with mediating resources (adjusted for age and sex)
R2
0.07
Model
Model 0
Transformational Leadership
Age
Sex
Beta
P value
0.24
0.01
0.11
0.00
0.81
0.06
Model 0 LS +
Decision latitude
0.20
0.13
0.00
0.03
0.07
Model 0 LS +
Social support
0.12
0.27
0.06
0.00
0.13
Model 0 LS +
Organizational Culture
0.18
0.19
0.00
0.00
0.10
Model 0 LS +
Employee satisfaction
0.12
0.25
0.06
0.00
0.12
Model 0 LS +
Work-life-balance
0.16
0.50
0.00
0.00
0.31
Model 0 LS +
Self-efficacy
0.15
0.40
0.01
0.00
0.21
Model 0 LS +
Meaningfulness
0.13
0.35
0.02
0.00
0.18
Model 0 LS +
Decision Latitude +
Social support +
Organizational Culture +
Employee satisfaction +
Work-life-balance +
Self-efficacy +
Meaningfulness
0.01
0.04
0.17
0.11
0.01
0.37
0.15
0.14
0.87
0.44
0.00
0.05
0.94
0.00
0.01
0.03
0.39
4. Discussion
In this study, we observed a negative relationship between transformational leadership and psychological
strain that was primarily mediated through the availability of organizational and individual psychosocial
resources.
We find support for our initial hypothesis (Fig. 1)
that employees perception of the presence of transformational leadership behavior has potential for influencing organizational and personal protective resources in a way that was associated with lower employee strain. However the assumption that transformational leadership was still associated with employee
strain in the presence of psychosocial resources could
not be verified. This would actually support the theoretical aspect of transformational leadership to elevate the employees level of maturity and empowering
the individual by providing /protecting psychosocial
resources [34]. Consistent with the work of others, our
results further indicate that transformational leadership
behavior has a stronger influence on organizational resources than personal resources (e.g., Work life balance, Self-Efficacy) [24]. A potential explanation for
this finding is that leaders might find it easier to influence the availability of organizational resources rather
than those primarily available to or within individuals. With respect to healthy organizational climate, this
study also supports previous work on the importance of
the relationship between supervisors and their employees [12,68]. Our findings are consistent with the CORTheory in suggesting that psychosocial resources have
an important relationship to psychological strain.
Our results seem to fit generally with previous findings in the literature that support the linkage between
leadership, well-being and employee stress [10,23,28,
37,69]. Nielsen et al. [38] pointed to the possibility
that the effect of transformational leadership on mental
health exists only when perceived work characteristics
change. Our work extends these findings by identifying
the specific contribution of organizational and personal
protective resources, use of a standardized method for
assessing mediation and by accounting for factors that
may potentially confound results.
To our knowledge this is one of the first studies
to explore various subdimensions of transformational
leadership, which might actually influence employee
stress by incorporating potential pathways over different psychosocial work environment factors as well as
personal resources.
It is important to consider these results within the
context of several limitations. First, we used a cross-
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
321
Table 3
Direct and indirect effects of the mediation steps by Baron and Kenny (1000 Bootstrap samples)
Model
1. Leadership Strain
2. Leadership Resources
3. Resources Strain
4. Complete Model
Leadership Resources
Resources Strain
Leadership Strain
Indirect effect
Leadership Resources Strain
Beta
0.28
0.61
0.54
p
0.00
0.00
0.00
Lower B.
0.40
0.48
0.66
Upper B.
0.16
0.71
0.41
0.61
0.54
0.03
0.00
0.00
0.63
0.49
0.72
0.11
0.71
0.38
0.19
0.33
0.00
0.47
0.21
Fig. 2. Potential Mediation of psychosocial resources between leadership and employee strain.
322
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
5. Conclusion
Our study explores how transformational leadership,
as suggested in theoretical models, might strengthen
psychosocial resources to lower employee stress in
forms of depression or anxiety symptoms. Some of
the associations presented here are not surprising since
psychosocial risk factors have long been identified as
relevant to the health of working adults [10,70,71], yet
it further highlights the potential importance of leadership behavior and protective resources in occupational
health. These findings may be useful in designing tailored interventions at the workplace with the goal to
preserve organizational and personal resourcesand thus
strengthen employee health.
Acknowledgment
The study was supported by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]
[38]
[39]
[40]
[41]
[42]
[43]
[44]
323
and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors. Journal of Management. 1996 Apr 1; 22(2): 259298.
[45] Heinitz K. Gtekriterien einer deutschen Adaptation des
Transformational Leadership Inventory ( TLI ) von Podsakoff.
2007; 51.
[46] Derogatis LR, Unger R. Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. The
Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology. John Wiley and Sons,
Inc.; 2010.
[47] Benyamini Y. Why does self-rated health predict mortality? An update on current knowledge and a research agenda
for psychologists. Psychol Health. 2011 Nov; 26(11): 1407
1413.
[48] Hakanen JJ, Schaufeli WB, Ahola K. The Job DemandsResources model: A three-year cross-lagged study of burnout,
depression, commitment, and work engagement. Work and
Stress. Routledge; 2008 Jul; 22(3): 224241.
[49] Van der Doef M, Maes S. The Job Demand-Control (-Support)
Model and psychological well-being: A review of 20 years of
empirical research. Work and Stress. Routledge; 1999; 13(2):
87114.
[50] Siegrist J. Adverse Effects of high effort low reward conditions at work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
1996; 1: 2743.
[51] Semmer NK, Zapf D, Dunckel H. Instrument zur Stressbezogenen Ttigkeitsanalyse ISTA. In: Dunckel H, editor. Handbuch psychologischer Arbeitsanalyseverfahren. Zrich: vdf
Hochschulverlag; 1999. p. 179204.
[52] Rimann M, Udris I. Belastungen und Gesundheitsressourcen
im Berufs - und Privatbereich - eine quantitative Studie.
Zrich: Eidgenssische Technische Hochschule, Institut fr
Arbeitspsychologie; 1993.
[53] Rosenstiel L von, Bogel R. Betriebsklima geht jeden an! 4th
ed. Munchen: Bayerisches Staatsministerium fr Arbeit und
Sozialordnung; 1992.
[54] Tuomi K, Ilmarinen J, Jahkola A, Katajarinnel TA. Work
Ability Index. Occupational Health Care. Helsinki: Finnish
Institute of Occupational Health.; 1998.
[55] Angermeyer MC, Kilian R, Matschinger H. WHOQOL-100
und WHOQOL-BREF. Handbuch fr die deutsche Version
der WHO Instrumente zur Erfassung von Lebensqualitt. Gttingen: Hogrefe; 2000.
[56] Nbling M, Stel U, Hasselhorn H-M, Michaelis M, Hofmann F. Methoden zur Erfassung psychischer Belastungen
- Erprobung eines Messinstrumentes (COPSOQ). Schriftenreihe der Bundesanstalt fr Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Fb 1058. Bremerhaven: Wirtschaftsverlag NW; 2005.
[57] Karasek RD. Job demands, job decision latitude and mental
strain: Implications for job redesign. Administrative Science
Quaterly. 1979; 24: 285308.
[58] Hackman JR, Oldham GR. Work redesign. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley; 1980.
[59] Sonnentag S, Frese M. Stress in organizations. Comprehensive Handbook of Psychology, Volume Twelve: Industrial and
Organizational Psychology. 2003.
[60] Schwarzer R, Jerusalem M. Generalized Self-Efficacy scale.
In: Weinman J, Wright S, Johnston M, editors. Measures in
health psychology: A users portfolio. Causal and control beliefs. Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON; 1995. p. 3537.
[61] Taylor L, Loerbroks A, Herr RM, Lane RD, Fischer JE,
Thayer JF. Depression and smoking: mediating role of vagal
tone and inflammation. Ann Behav Med. 2011 Dec; 42(3):
334340.
[62] Baron RM, Kenny DA. The moderatormediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strate-
324
[63]
[64]
[65]
[66]
[67]
B. Schmidt et al. / Relationship between transformational leadership and employees psychological strain
gic, and statistical considerations. Inc E, editor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. American Psychological Association; 1986; 51(6): 11731182.
Zhao X, Lynch Jr. JG, Chen Q, Lynch Jr JG. Reconsidering
Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis. Journal of Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research, Inc.; 2010 Aug; 37(2): 197206.
Hayes AF. Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical Mediation
Analysis in the New Millennium. Communication Monographs. Routledge; 2009 Dec; 76(4): 408420.
Bollen KA, Stine R. Direct and indirect effects: Classical and
bootstrap estimates of variability. Sociological Methodology.
1990; 20: 115140.
Bollen KA, Stine RA. Bootstrapping Goodness-of-Fit Mea
sures in Structural Equation Models. Sociological Methods
and Research. 1992 Nov 1; 21(2): 205229.
Hooper D, Coughlan J, Mullen MR. Structural Equation
Modelling: Guidelines for Determining Model Fit. Journal of
[68]
[69]
[70]
[71]
Appendix
Scale
German items
Decision latitude Ich habe Mglichkeiten, meine Arbeitsgeschwindigkeit
selbstzu bestimmen.
Ich habe Mglichkeiten, bei der Arbeit Neues zu erlernen.
Ich habe Freirume fr Eigeninitiative.
English items
I can manage the speed at which I work on my own.
I have the opportunity to learn new things at my job.
I am free to show initiative.
Social support
Employee
satisfaction
Meaningfulness
Organizational
culture
Wie beurteilen Sie die Frsorge des Unternehmens fr die How would you rate the way your company cares for its
employees?
Mitarbeiter?
Wie beurteilen Sie die Transparenz der Unternehmenspolitik? How would you rate the transparency of company policies?
Wie beurteilen Sie die Umsichtigkeit mit der Vernderungen How would you rate the care with which changes are
umgesetzt werden?
implemented in your company?
Work life
balance
Copyright of Work is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed
to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written
permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.