The effects of transformational leadership on followers’ perceived work characteristics and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study

By K. Nielsen, R. Randall, J. Yarker, S. Brenner. 2008

499 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Transformational leaders employ a visionary and creative style of leadership that inspires employees to broaden their interest in their work and to be innovative and creative. There is some evidence that transformational leadership style is linked to employee psychological well-being. However, it is not clear whether this is due to (1) a direct relationship between leadership behaviour and affective well-being outcomes, or (2) a relationship between leadership behaviour and well-being that is mediated by followers’ perceived work characteristics. (Such characteristics include role clarity, meaningfulness, and opportunities for development.) This study aims to extend previous work by examining the validity of these two mechanisms in a longitudinal questionnaire study. The study was carried out within the elderly care sector in a Danish local governmental department. A theory-driven model of the relationships between leadership, work characteristics, and psychological well-being was tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results indicated that followers’ perceptions of their work characteristics did mediate the relationship between transformational leadership style and psychological well-being. However, there was only limited evidence of the existence of a direct path between leadership behaviour and employee well-being. These findings have implications for design, implementation, and management of efforts to improve employee well-being.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/75142197e67a00e8169508fc51d9f0fb2c78f355

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In General Health Professions

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Transformational Leadership and Well-Being in Sports: The Mediating Role of Need Satisfaction (2014, background): “Studies in work settings have examined the mediating effects of work characteristics between transformational leadership and well-being (Arnold et al., 2007; Nielsen et al., 2008; Tafvelin, Armelius, & Westerberg, 2011).”
Health-specific leadership: Is there an association between leader consideration for the health of employees and their strain and well-being? (2011, background): “While both leadership constructs exhibited a positive relation with psychological climate for health, only general leadership was associated with lower role ambiguity and higher job satisfaction, thus confirming mediated relationships between leadership and health-related variables established in fo”
Transformational leadership and employee psychological well-being: The mediating role of employee trust in leadership (2012, background): “…1 A number of recent studies have shown that perceived work characteristics such as meaningfulness (e.g., Arnold et al., 2007; McKee et al., 2011; Nielsen et al., 2008a) and involvement (e.g., Nielsen, Randall, Yarker, & Brenner, 2008b) mediate the relationship between transformational…”
Uncovering the underlying relationship between transformational leaders and followers’ task performance (2014, unknown): “Several studies propose that transformational leaders are effective, because they inﬂuence job characteristics (e.g., Nielsen, Randall, Yarker, & Brenner, 2008; Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006) or fulﬁll followers ’ basic needs (e.g., Kovjanic, Schuh, & Jonas, 2013; Kovjanic, Schuh, Jonas, Van Quaquebeke,…”
Linking perceived management support with employees’ readiness for change: the mediating role of psychological capital (2017, background): “It should be noted that the causal directionality in this proposed relationship is debatable; it is plausible that employees who enjoy high levels of wellbeing are more likely to perceive their leaders as supportive (Nielsen et al., 2008; Winkler, Busch, Clasen, & Vowinkel, 2015).”
Transformational leadership, work engagement, and occupational success (2012, background): “Supervisors are supposed to make a big contribution to obtaining and maintaining healthy, well-trained, and efficiently working employees on a long-term basis by defining an environment in which employees can thrive and experience well-being (Mullen and Kelloway, 2010; Nielsen et al., 2008).”
Transformational leadership and work engagement: The mediating effect of meaning in work (2013, background): “Studies in the transformational leadership literature have argued that GTL dimensions are valid and reliable in assessing these 4I’s dimensions (Nielsen et al., 2008).”
The Positive Relationship between Servant Leadership and Employees' Psychological Health: A Multi-Method Approach (2014, background): “Furthermore, research on alternative leadership styles and health has also demonstrated the health enhancing effects of leadership (Nielsen et al., 2008).”
Is avoidant leadership a root cause of subordinate stress? Longitudinal relationships between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity (2014, background): “Moreover, when role stress is studied as a mediator in the leader behaviour-outcome chain (see Moyle, 1998; Nielsen et al., 2008), laissez-faire leadership is a strong candidate for inclusion.”
Engaging leadership in the job demands-resources model (2015, result): “This is in line with the findings of a longitudinal study (Nielsen et al., 2008) that showed that followers’ perceptions of their work characteristics (i.e. role clarity, meaningful work, opportunities for development) mediated the relationship between transformational leadership style and future…”
Engaging leader – Engaged employees? A cross-lagged study on employee engagement (2019, methodology): “Research on the mechanisms that may explain how leadership styles positively affect employee and organisational outcomes have identified job characteristics as a mediator (Nielsen et al., 2008; Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006; Schaufeli, 2015).”
Review Article: How can we make organizational interventions work? Employees and line managers as actively crafting interventions (2013, background): “A growing body of research has shown that employees’ resources (e.g. Nielsen and Munir, 2009; Nielsen et al., 2008) influence the opportunities of line managers to exert leadership.”