By Dr. Brian Banke, Ph.D, DSL, M.Div
Mental health issues among working-aged adults have become a growing issue of concern (Joyce et al., 2016). Mental health disorders including depression and anxiety are now widely recognized as one of the leading causes of workplace absence and long-term work disability (Joyce et al., 2016). Interestingly, research consistently demonstrates that most mental health conditions can be successfully treated and, in many cases, prevented (Joyce et al., 2016). Despite this, research suggests that most organizations fail to directly address mental health issues among employees (Memish et al., 2017). The general assumption made by most organizations is that mental health issues often originate outside of the workplace and are, therefore, not the responsibility of the employer (Memish et al., 2017). This assumption stands in stark contrast to what individuals report regarding mental health issues and the workplace. In particular, scholars report that among employees with affective disorders, including depression and anxiety, 33% attribute their mental health issues to their work environment (Verkuil et al., 2015). Additionally, 69% of all employees report that work is a significant source of stress (Gillispie et al., 2016).
Employee mental health has systemic implications for individual and organizational productivity and performance. Specifically, current evidence indicates that poor employee mental health can result in depression, emotional exhaustion, poor mental functioning, and poor well-being (Reimann, 2016). When these issues occur within the context of the organization, this can result in the inability of employees to perform optimally and to achieve desired goals (Reimann, 2016). Although some companies have implemented programs and policies to help employees manage mental health issues privately—i.e., employee wellness programs—few companies have considered the role of leaders in improving the mental health of employees (Dimoff & Kelloway, 2019). This trend persists despite preliminary research indicating that the leader and his or her leadership style may play a significant role in shaping the mental health and well-being of followers (Inceoglu et al., 2018).
The potential to leverage leadership as a means to help prevent mental health issues among employees represents a true opportunity to fortify the organization from the inside out. Improving employee mental health and well-being could enhance employee productivity and performance with the potential to increase the engagement and commitment of the employee within the organization. All of these factors should improve operations within the organization, with the potential to improve efficiency and innovation among the workforce. Given the potential of leadership to transform this aspect of organizational dynamics, it becomes imperative to understand how leadership impacts mental health and further what steps can be taken by organizational leaders to proactively and concretely address this issue in practice. Leveraging leadership practice to improve follower mental health should enable organizations to optimize this element of organizational discourse to further enhance employee productivity and performance.
As one of the most prominent leadership paradigms currently in use, transformational leadership appears to provide a useful foundation upon which to positively impact follower mental health. Research regarding transformational leadership suggests that this approach focuses on four specific activities that can transform individual behavior (Dartey-Baah & Addo, 2019). These four activities are also known as the four I’s and include the following: inspirational motivation, idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Dartey-Baah & Addo, 2019). Although the influence of transformational leadership on employee mental health has not been extensively reviewed in the current literature, research does indicate that transformational leadership has been positively correlated with several variables of employee psychological health and well-being, including job satisfaction (Aydogmus et al., 2018), self-efficacy (Mesterova et al., 2015), motivation (Fernet et al., 2015), and productivity (Katou, 2015). Further, as reported by Arnold (2017), “In many cases, transformational leadership positively predicts positive measures and negatively predicts negative measures of employee psychological well-being” (p. 382). Consequently, intentional use of transformational leadership practices could lead to a healthier workplace for employees as well as greater organizational effectiveness.
References
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