To read this content please select one of the options below:

Why busy leaders may have exhausted followers: a multilevel perspective on supportive leadership

Maie Stein (Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany)
Sylvie Vincent-Höper (Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany)
Sabine Gregersen (Department of Occupational Medicine, Hazardous Substances and Public Health, Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention in the Health and Welfare Services, Hamburg, Germany)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 15 July 2020

Issue publication date: 18 July 2020

2030

Abstract

Purpose

This study of leaders and followers working in day-care centers aims to use a multilevel perspective on supportive leadership to examine its role in linking workload at the leader level and emotional exhaustion at the follower level. Integrating theoretical work on social support with conservation of resources (COR) theory, leaders' workload is proposed to be positively related to followers' feelings of emotional exhaustion through constraining the enactment of supportive leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

Multisource survey data from 442 followers and their leaders from 68 teams were collected to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Multilevel analyses showed that leader workload was negatively related to followers' perception of supportive leadership, which, in turn, was positively related to followers' levels of emotional exhaustion. Leader workload was indirectly and positively related to follower emotional exhaustion via supportive leadership.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides initial support for the idea that work contextual factors at the leader level create boundaries for the extent to which leaders may provide support to their followers and draws attention to the accountability of leaders' work contextual factors for followers' well-being.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that organizations must not focus narrowly on training leaders on how to benefit followers but should also aim to optimize leaders' levels of workload to enable them to act in a supportive manner.

Originality/value

By considering both the receivers (i.e. followers) and providers (i.e. leaders) of support simultaneously, we take a crossover approach to COR theory and acknowledge that work contextual factors at higher organizational levels may spread to employee well-being at lower levels of the organization.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by funding from the Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention in the Health and Welfare Services, Hamburg, Germany. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Citation

Stein, M., Vincent-Höper, S. and Gregersen, S. (2020), "Why busy leaders may have exhausted followers: a multilevel perspective on supportive leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 41 No. 6, pp. 829-845. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-11-2019-0477

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles