Investigating occupational well being and leadership from a person centred longitudinal approach: congruence of well being and perceived leadership
The overall objective of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between perceived leadership and employee well being from a person centred approach utilizing the principles of the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, S. E. (1989) Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513 524; Hobfoll, S. E. (2002) Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307 324) First, we aimed to identify latent classes (i.e. subgroups) of employees that demonstrated similar mean levels of stability and change in occupational well being (i.e. vigour and emotional exhaustion) across a mean time lag of 14 months. Second, we ascertained whether employees in the latent well being classes differed in their ratings of transformational, authentic, and abusive leadership behaviours across time. Self report data were obtained from Finnish employees (N 262, 88% women) working in a variety of municipal jobs. Using factor mixture modelling, four latent well being classes were identified, indicating good (79% low (10% improving (8% and deteriorating (3% well being. Congruence in both level and change of well being and perceived leadership was found. That is, employees with better well being across time reported more favourable leadership behaviours at both time points, and changes in employee well being were reflected as changes in perceived leadership. The close relationship between perceived leadership and well being is discussed from both a leader centric (leadership as a resource) and a follower centric (well being as a resource) perspective.