Leadership Styles and Leader Well-Being: A Mediation Study
Summary
Studies examining the effects of leadership styles on leader well-being have, in the past decade,
increased in number. However, up until now, mechanisms mediating these relationships have been
largely ignored. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to investigate whether subordinate
functioning, in the form of follower OCB, performance, and bullying, would act as either a job demand
or a resource for leaders, depending on the positive or negative valence of the follower behaviour, and
thus influence the effects of leadership styles on leader well-being related outcomes. A total of 346
participants in supervisory roles, primarily recruited through the crowdsourcing platform MTurk, filled
out an online questionnaire containing 146 questions related to leadership styles, subordinate
functioning, and well-being at work. The data was analysed using the logistic regression PROCESS
macro for SPSS. Results indicated that subordinate functioning did, in fact, demonstrate mediation in
many of the relationships between leadership styles and leader well-being, and that the JD-R model
could serve as a useful tool in explaining these mediations. Although further studies are needed to fully
understand the relationships between leadership styles and leader well-being, the present study not
only provides a springboard for identifying mediating mechanisms in future studies, but also provides
some promising findings. Thus, future studies should focus on replicating the present findings as well
as identifying other mediating mechanisms in the relationship between leadership styles and leader
well-being to form a more holistic understanding of the consequences of leadership – for the benefit
of organisational interventions and leadership training.