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Linking destructive forms of leadership to employee health

Sarah-Geneviève Trépanier (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada)
Valérie Boudrias (Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada)
Clayton Peterson (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 2 October 2019

Issue publication date: 11 October 2019

2796

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological and motivational processes involved in the relationship between two forms of destructive leadership (tyrannical and laissez-faire) and employee health (burnout, affective commitment and job performance). Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper links tyrannical and laissez-faire leadership to employee health through psychological need frustration and poor-quality (controlled) work motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 399 Canadian nurses took part in this cross-sectional study. Structural equational modelling analyses were conducted.

Findings

Results show that tyrannical leadership frustrates nurses’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, whereas laissez-faire leadership frustrates nurses’ need for autonomy only. The frustration of needs for autonomy and competence predicts low-quality (controlled) work motivation, which is consequently associated with impaired health (burnout and lower affective commitment as well as performance).

Originality/value

This study contributes to the scarce knowledge regarding the distinct outcomes of destructive forms of leadership and uncovers the specific psychological and motivational pathways through which these types of leadership influence employees’ health.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Sarah-Geneviève Trépanier. The authors express their appreciation to Professor Anders Skogstad, who provided constructive feedback on the manuscript.

Citation

Trépanier, S.-G., Boudrias, V. and Peterson, C. (2019), "Linking destructive forms of leadership to employee health", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 40 No. 7, pp. 803-814. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-04-2019-0168

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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