Laissez-faire leadership and employee well-being: The contribution of perceived supervisor organizational status

Véronique Robert and Christian Vandenberghe
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Véronique Robert: TSM - Toulouse School of Management Research - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - TSM - Toulouse School of Management - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse

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Abstract: The role of leaders has been increasingly studied in connection to employee well-being. However, little attention has been given to the effect of passive forms of leadership such as laissez-faire leadership. Two studies examined the effects of laissez-faire leadership on positive and negative aspects of employee psychological well-being. Due to its passive nature, we expected laissez-faire leadership to relate to reduced positive mental health and more depressive symptoms among employees. Moreover, we predicted these relations to be exacerbated when supervisors are perceived to hold a high organizational status. Results from a three-wave time-lagged study (Study 1: N = 608) indicated that laissez-faire leadership was associated with reduced positive mental health and more depressive symptoms over time and provided partial support for the moderating role of perceived supervisor organizational status. Study 2 was a vignette experiment (N = 190) that examined the effects of laissez-faire leadership, constructive leadership, and abusive supervision conditions on employee well-being. Results indicated that in the laissez-faire leadership condition employee well-being was worse than in the constructive leadership condition but better than in the abusive supervision condition. We discuss the implications of these results for research on laissez-faire leadership and psychological well-being.

Keywords: Laissez-faire leadership; psychological well-being; mental health; depressive symptoms; supervisor organizational status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Published in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2022, ⟨10.1080/1359432X.2022.2081074⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03781184

DOI: 10.1080/1359432X.2022.2081074

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