German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung

Work-related stress has considerable consequences for organizations. Thus, the prevention of stress has the potential to positively affect employees’ health and performance. While previous research found the first evidence that transformational leadership is negatively related to followers’ levels of perceived stress, this research was limited by its reliance on common methods and subjective experience of stress. In addition, innovative leadership concepts such as instrumental leadership have not been explored as potential barriers to followers’ stress. The present article has therefore tested the relationships between transformational and instrumental leadership by utilizing an objective indicator of stress, namely followers’ levels of cortisol, as measured in two samples. In sample 1, followers provided two saliva samples per day; in sample 2, they provided samples of their hair. For both saliva and hair, reliable and valid assessments of cortisol are feasible and were utilized for the purpose of the present study. Results revealed that transformational leadership had no effect on cortisol levels. However, instrumental leadership was negatively associated with (a) evening levels of saliva cortisol and (b) hair cortisol. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Current demographic and occupational changes call for new interventions to promote staff retention, especially in nursing where understaffing promotes turnover by increasing workload and strain. Based on previous research examining recovery at work, we investigated whether well-designed rest breaks can function as a resource that buffers adverse consequences of understaffing in nursing. We used a cross-sectional, multi-method study design and assessed understaffing of registered nurses, their regularity of rest breaks, and their annual turnover behaviour in 80 German geriatric nursing teams. As expected, understaffing positively predicted turnover only in work conditions with irregular rest breaks. Hence, implementing regularly scheduled rest breaks can be considered as an effective intervention for improving retention of nurses even in a situation of understaffing.

Die kognitive Distanzierung von Arbeitsinhalten wahrend der arbeitsfreien Zeit (psychological detachment) stellt einen wichtigen Faktor für Erholung, Wohlbefinden und andauernde Leistungsfähigkeit von Beschäftigten dar. Die Antezedenzien von mentalem Abschalten nach der Arbeit sind jedoch bisweilen nur unzureichend untersucht worden; dies gilt insbesondere für Variablen im unmittelbaren Arbeitsumfeld von Mitarbeitern. Was können Organisationen tun, um das mentale Abschalten ihrer Mitarbeiter in der Freizeit zu fordern? Basierend auf einer Kombination aus dem Stressor–Detachment Model und der Theorie der Ressourcenerhaltung gehen wir davon aus, dass Servant Leadership als Prädiktor von mentalem Abschalten nach der Arbeit betrachtet werden kann, welches sich wiederum positiv auf freiwilliges Arbeitsengagement (Organizational Citizenship Behavior), auswirkt. Die Hypothesen testen wir mittels Querschnittsdesign mit N = 121 Mitarbeitern eines Technologiekonzerns. Es werden Zeitintervalle zwischen den Erhebungszeitpunkten sowie Fremdbeurteilungen eingesetzt, um das Risiko von Methodenverzerrung zu minimieren. Die Ergebnisse eines Strukturgleichungsmodells zeigen hypothesenkonform, dass mentales Abschalten nach der Arbeit den Zusammenhang zwischen Servant Leadership und freiwilligem Arbeitsengagement teilweise mediiert. Implikationen für die Praxis und Ansatzpunkte für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten werden diskutiert.