Kumulative Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2024

Von der genannten Lizenzangabe ausgenommen sind folgende Bestandteile dieser Dissertation:
Manuscript 2 "Examining leaders’ responses to organizational follower behaviour and the moderating role of leader agreeableness" (S. 72-103) und Manuscript 3 "Emotion-rule dissonance in leader-follower interactions and its impact on leaders’ self-regulatory resources at work and well-being at home" (S. 105-152) stehen unter der CC-Lizenz CC BY.

Lizenzvertrag: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The relationship between leaders and their followers is one of the most prominent social dynamics in the workplace and has received much attention in various areas of psychological research. However, while an extensive body of literature exists on how leaders may shape employee outcomes such as motivation, performance, and health, the impact of leader-follower interactions on leaders has received limited attention to date. Understanding and supporting the well-being of leaders within the context of their leadership responsibilities is crucial for fostering a healthy and successful organizational environment.
The objective of this dissertation was to elucidate factors influencing the well-being of leaders within the context of leader-follower interactions. The research was primarily grounded in the theoretical framework of the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001). Three distinct aspects were in the focus of my investigation. Firstly, I explored elements of leader-follower interactions that contribute positively to leaders’ well-being (research goal 1). Secondly, I extended this perspective by unravelling factors within leader-follower interactions that may undermine leaders’ well-being (research goal 2). Lastly, I delved into the effects on various facets of leaders’ well-being, encompassing both leaders’ professional and private lives (research goal 3). This dissertation comprises three separate manuscripts, detailed in Chapters 2 to 4, which collectively provide comprehensive answers to these research questions.

The first manuscript (Chapter 2) investigated the impact of leaders’ own leader-member exchange (LMX) behaviours, i.e., leadership behaviours striving to create and uphold high-quality exchange relationships with their followers. I proposed that leaders’ LMX behaviours are positively related to well-being indicators at work, i.e., positive affect and perceived competence. Moreover, I suggested that these variables act as a linking mechanism between leaders’ LMX behaviours and their well-being at home, including job
satisfaction and psychological detachment. Additionally, the proposed relationships were assumed to evolve at both between- and within-person levels. Hypotheses were tested based on data from leaders (N = 85; 376 daily observations) collected via a daily diary study over the course of five consecutive working days. Results of multilevel path analyses supported the positive, direct links between leaders’ LMX behaviours and positive affect and perceived competence at work. Moreover, I found partial support for the indirect effect of leaders’ LMX behaviours and well-being at home through leaders’ well-being at work. While all assumed direct and indirect effects were significant on the between-person level, there was no significant indirect effect of LMX behaviours on psychological detachment via perceived competence on the within-person level.

In the second manuscript (Chapter 3), I investigated organizational follower behaviours as a potential antecedent of leader well-being and perceptions of LMX based on an online experimental between-subject study manipulating vignettes on three different types of follower behaviour: task performance (TP), organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). I suggested that TP and OCB should be positively associated with leader positive affect and ratings of LMX, as well as negatively with leader negative affect when compared to CWB. Moreover, I assumed that leader personality, i.e., trait agreeableness, would act as a boundary condition in these relationships. As expected, the findings revealed that leaders benefit from constructive follower behaviours, showing elevated levels of positive affect, higher LMX ratings, and lower levels of negative affect. Moreover, leader agreeableness moderated these relationships, indicating that highly agreeable leaders benefit from follower OCB.

The third manuscript (Chapter 4) focused on the emotion work demands of leaders, particularly emotion-rule dissonance, evolving from leader-follower interactions. I assumed that leaders’ emotion-rule dissonance in interactions with their followers depletes leaders’ self-regulatory resources at work. Furthermore, I proposed that this effect extends into leaders’ non-work domain, such that self-regulatory resource depletion is related to stronger work-life interference and impaired mental recovery, as reflected in enhanced negative work reflection. The suggested relationships were presumed to exist at both between- and within-person levels. In sum, the results of an online daily diary study (N = 85 leaders; 376 daily observations) mainly supported the assumed hypotheses, showing that emotion-rule dissonance in leader-follower interactions is positively linked to leaders’ self-regulatory resources at work, which spills over into their private life by increasing negative work reflection and work-life interference. Although all assumed direct and indirect effects were significant at the within-person level, there was no significant indirect effect of emotion-rule dissonance on negative work reflection via self-regulatory resources at the between-person level.

In conclusion, the findings presented in this dissertation corroborate the pivotal role of leader-follower interactions in leaders’ daily lives, with the potential to either enhance or harm different facets of leaders’ well-being across work and non-work domains. Furthermore, this research underscores the substantial influence of leaders and followers in shaping leaders’ well-being and the overall quality of leader-follower relationships. The manuscripts included in the dissertation are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications and limitations. Furthermore, I delineate avenues for future research and insights for practitioners.