Does Servant Leadership Moderate the Relationship between Job Stress and Physical Health?

Larry M. Dooley, Amin Alizadeh, Shaoping Qiu and Hongchao Wu
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Larry M. Dooley: Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Amin Alizadeh: Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Shaoping Qiu: Department of Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Hongchao Wu: School of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-13

Abstract: High school teachers experience high levels of job stress, which could lead to serious health problems. This study focused on Chinese high school teachers, as they have to manage negative stress and health issues. The research aimed to: (1) investigate the relationship between hindrance job stress, depersonalization, and physical health; (2) investigate if servant leadership, in fact moderates the relationship between hindrance job stress and depersonalization, as well as physical health. The study desisgn was cross-sectional and data analyses were conducted by using SPSS 21 and Mplus 7. The sample consisted of 857 high school teachers across Southern China. The results showed that hindrance stress is related to depersonalization among high school teachers ( β = 0.63, p < 0.01). Both hindrance job stress ( β = 0.32, p < 0.01) and depersonalization ( β = 0.16, p < 0.01) are positively related to physical health. In addition, servant leadership moderates the relationship between hindrance job stress and physical health among the Chinese high school teachers ( β = −0.09, p < 0.01). However, the results did not find that the effect of hindrance job stress on depersonalization is moderated by servant leadership ( β = 0.02, p = 0.53). It is suggested that Chinese high schools recruit and train leaders in servant leadership, relieve teachers’ stress, and promote their health to ensure the sustainable development of schools.

Keywords: servant leadership; hindrance job stress; physical health; depersonalization; high school teachers; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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