Identity leadership and well-being: team identification and trust as underlying mechanisms

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the present research was to examine the impact of identity leadership on employees' well-being mediated by team identification and trust in the leader.

Design/methodology/approach

In study 1, N = 192 employees participated in a cross-sectional online survey measuring identity leadership, team identification, trust in the leader and well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, work engagement, burnout). In study 2, N = 72 university students participated in a vignette study that manipulated high/low identity leadership and tested its effect on team identification and trust in the leader.

Findings

In study 1, identity leadership predicted higher team identification, trust in the leader and well-being of employees. Team identification mediated the positive relationship of identity leadership with both job satisfaction and work engagement, while trust in the leader mediated the negative relationship of identity leadership with burnout. In study 2, team identification and trust in the leader were significantly higher in the high identity leadership condition.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are consistent with the few existing studies on the positive effects of identity leadership. However, due to the correlational nature of the data in study 1, future longitudinal field research is needed to support the current findings and further establish causality for the model as a whole.

Practical implications

Identity leadership seems to be promising to increase well-being among employees. Thus, leadership development programs to foster identity leadership and collective identity should be implemented in organizations and further tested with respect to well-being.

Originality/value

This research contributes to an emerging body of research on the social identity approach to leadership and supports the recent claims that social identity might be one of the links between leader behavior and well-being of employees. Moreover, this study is among the first to investigate and experimentally test the underlying mechanisms of identity leadership.

Citation

Krug, H., Geibel, H.V. and Otto, K. (2021), "Identity leadership and well-being: team identification and trust as underlying mechanisms", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-02-2020-0054