Servant Leadership and Mental Health Among Leaders and Followers: Empirical Investigations on Antecedents, Processes and Outcomes.
Author/s
Brouns, Tim DietmarDate
2021Discipline/s
PsicologíaSubject/s
LiderazgoAgotamiento Emocional
Psicología del Liderazgo
Abstract
The incidence of sick leave caused by mental illness has been on the rise for years. This ongoing “epidemic” poses a major challenge to the econo-my. In occupational health psychology, leadership is having an important role in maintaining and promoting mental health. A very promising leadership theory that goes beyond other prevalent leadership theories to increase positive out-comes on different levels (individual, team, organization) is servant leadership. Surprisingly, in-depth empirical evidence on the relationship between servant leadership and mental health at work is currently scarce. Therefore, I examined the impact of servant leadership on mental health at both employee and leader levels. Following the health definition of World Health Organisation, I conceptu-alized mental health as a two continua model and measured using two indicators, emotional exhaustion and flourishing. In doing so, I used emotional exhaustion as a subclinical indicator of mental illness and flourishing ...