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a multi-source dataset comprising 93,576 subordinates in 11,177 teams of a large
international company. We analyze how leadership climate strength, defined as the shared
perceptions of employees concerning their supervisor's leadership behavior, affects
individual employees' health and if leaders who are both transformational and
transactional have more healthy employees (augmentation effect). In addition, we
investigate how national power distance moderates these relationships. The results of
multi-level analysis provide strong support for the health promoting effect of
transformational leadership (r = .16 to r = .50),
contingent reward (r = .14 to r = .48) and the health
hampering effect of laissez-faire leadership (r = -.15 to
r = -.43) within the analyzed 16 nations. Having a strong
transformational leadership climate is also associated with better perceived health in
eight countries. Finally, the augmentation effect was significant in six countries and we
also found, as expected, that a high power distance strengthens the health promoting
effects of transformational leadership. Overall, this study indicates that having a shared
vision as well as clear goals, roles and rewards at work is important for promoting
employees' health worldwide.
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