title: If Only my Leader Would just Do Something! Passive Leadership Undermines Employee Well-being Through Role Stressors and Psychological Resource Depletion.
abstract: The goal of this study was to develop and test a sequential mediational model explaining the negative relationship of passive leadership to employee well-being. Based on role stress theory, we posit that passive leadership will predict higher levels of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. Invoking Conservation of Resources theory, we further hypothesize that these role stressors will indirectly and negatively influence two aspects of employee well-being, namely overall mental health and overall work attitude, through psychological work fatigue. Using a probability sample of 2467 US workers, structural equation modelling supported the model by showing that role stressors and psychological work fatigue partially mediated the negative relationship between passive leadership and both aspects of employee well-being. The hypothesized, sequential indirect relationships explained 47.9% of the overall relationship between passive leadership and mental health and 26.6% of the overall relationship between passive leadership and overall work attitude. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Smith School of Business, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barling
authors.affiliation: State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Frone
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000073397:Occupational Stress / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Conservation of Resources theory; laissez-faire leadership; mental health; passive leadership; psychological work fatigue; role stressors