title: What about the leader? Crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement from followers to leaders.
abstract: Although a growing body of research links leadership behavior to follower health, comparatively little is known about the health effects of being in the lead. This longitudinal study of 315 team members and 67 leaders examined the crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement from followers to leaders. Leader emotional self-efficacy was tested as a moderator in the crossover process. Multiple regression analyses revealed that followers' work engagement was positively related to leaders' work engagement eight months later, controlling for followers' tenure with the leader, leader gender, autonomy, workload, and work engagement at Time 1. Leaders' emotional self-efficacy did not moderate the crossover of work engagement. Followers' emotional exhaustion was not directly related to leaders' emotional exhaustion over time. We did find a significant interaction effect for follower emotional exhaustion and leader emotional self-efficacy. This study is the first to show that crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement can unfold over time from team members to leaders. Main theoretical implications lie in the finding that-in line with job demands-resources theory-followers' psychological states can pose a demand or resource for leaders, and influence their well-being. For practitioners, our results offer valuable insights regarding the design of organizational health interventions as well as leadership development measures. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Work, Organizational, and Business Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wirtz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Work, Organizational, and Business Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rigotti
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychology, Business, and Methods, Philipps University of Marburg.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Mälardalen University.
authors.forename: Carina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loeb
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007857:Leadership; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013548:Sweden; D016526:Workload