Leader behavior as a determinant of health at work: Specification and evidence of five key pathways

The extent to which leadership influences employee health and the processes that underlie its effects are not well understood at present. With the aim of filling this gap, we review four distinct forms of leader behavior (task-oriented, relationship-oriented, change-oriented, and passive/destructive) and clarify the different ways in which these can be expected to have a bearing on employee health. Next, we present a model that integrates and extends these insights. This model describes five pathways through which leader behavior can influence the health of organizational members and summarizes what we know about the most important determinants, processes (mediators) and moderators of these relationships. These involve leaders engaging in personfocused action, system- or team-focused action, action to moderate the impact of contextual factors, climate control and identity management, and modelling. Finally, we identify important gaps and opportunities in the literature that need to be addressed in future research. A key conclusion is that while much has been done to explore some key pathways between leadership and health, others remain underexplored. We also outline how future research might address these in the context of a more expansive theoretical, empirical and practical approach to this emerging field of research

A test of basic assumptions of Affective Events Theory (AET) in call centre work

Based on data from 2091 call centre representatives working in 85 call centres in the UK, central assumptions of affective events theory (AET) are tested. AET predicts that specific features of work (e.g. autonomy) have an impact on the arousal of emotions and moods at work that, in turn, co-determine job satisfaction of employees. AET further proposes that job satisfaction is an evaluative judgement that mainly explains cognitive-based behaviour, whereas emotions and moods better predict affective-based behaviour. The results support these assumptions. A clear separation of key constructs (job satisfaction, positive and negative emotions) was possible. Moreover, correlations between several work features (e.g. supervisory support) and job satisfaction were, in part, mediated by work emotions, even when controlling for gender, age, call centre type (in-house versus outsourced centres) and call centre size. Predictions regarding consequences of satisfaction and affect were partly corroborated as continuance commitment was more strongly related to job satisfaction than to positive emotions. In addition, affective commitment and health complaints were related to both emotions and job satisfaction to the same extent. Thus, AET is a fruitful framework for explaining why and how specific management strategies used for designing work features influence important organizational attitudes and well-being of employees

Development of the Saxon Health Target "active aging - Aging in health, autonomy, and participation" [Entwicklung des Sachsischen Gesundheitsziels "Aktives Altern - Altern in Gesundheit, Autonomie und Mitverantwortlichkeit"]

Die Folgen der demografischen Alterung sind bereits heute in Sachsen spürbar. Zur Bewältigung der Auswirkungen auf den Gesundheitssektor beschloss der Steuerungskreis Gesundheitsziele Sachsen im März 2008 die Entwicklung des Gesundheitsziels „Aktives Altern – Altern in Gesundheit, Autonomie und Mitverantwortlichkeit“. Die Ausgestaltung des neuen Gesundheitsziels basierte auf einem Siebenstufen-Modell (Handlungsfelder, Oberziele, Zielbereiche, Teilziele, Umsetzungsstrategien, Maßnahmen, Indikatoren für die Evaluation). Mittels einer quantitativen Inhaltsanalyse wurden zehn potenziell relevante Handlungsfelder identifiziert, von denen drei für die Ziele-Entwicklung ausgewählt wurden. Die Ziele wurden von 53 Akteuren in multiprofessionell besetzten Arbeitsgruppen erarbeitet. Zur Gewährleistung von wissenschaftlicher Evidenz und Umsetzbarkeit wurden Kriterienanalysen durchgeführt. In neun Monaten wurden 24 Teilziele entwickelt, die den Oberzielen bedarfsgerechte Versorgungsstrukturen, multiprofessionelle Qualifizierung, subjektive Gesundheit und intergenerationale Solidarität zugeordnet sind. 13 Teilziele wurden bis zu Maßnahmenvorschlägen spezifiziert. Die Maßnahmenvorschläge fokussieren auf eine Stärkung gesundheitsrelevanter Strukturen sowie psychosozialer Gesundheitsdeterminanten im Alter. Die besten Vorschläge sollen in Kooperation mit interessierten Entscheidungsträgern umgesetzt werden