In what ways does age-differentiated leadership influence employee health?

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

According to Wegge et al. (2014), leadership behavior can affect employee health in several ways. The model describes leaders (1) as actors with a direct influence on the health of employees, (2) as designers of work systems, (3) as a moderating factor (buffer/amplifier) of the effects of work requirements and resources on health, (4) as a developer of group climate and identification and (5) as direct role models for health-related behavior. In order to collect evidence for the usefulness of this multi-path model, connections between age-differentiated leadership (ADL) and health were analyzed in 947 employees of a German technology company. ADL is a management style that takes into account the particularities of mixed-age teams and also differentiates between the different needs of different age groups. It was found that better ADL (when controlling for employee-oriented leadership) is associated with fewer physical and psychological complaints (pathway 1). This relationship is mediated by the manager’s social support (path 2) and a better recreational climate in the team (path 4). Better ADL also reduced the negative effects of psychological work demands on the psychological symptoms (pathway 3).

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)429-439
Number of pages11
JournalZeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft : ZfA
Volume77
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 18 Aug 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-0015-5120/work/144110365
ORCID /0000-0002-0241-7032/work/144110919

Keywords

Keywords

  • Age-differentiated leadership, Alter(n)sgerechte Führung, Erholungsklima, Gesundheit, Health, Recovery climate

Library keywords