Leadership Behavior and Subordinate Well-Being.

TLDR

Well‑being is defined as people’s feelings about themselves and the settings in which they live and work. The study used a longitudinal design to examine the direction and timing of the relationship between leadership behavior and subordinate well‑being, formulating five models to address these questions. The authors followed 562 staff from two community trusts across four waves over 14 months, using longitudinal modeling to test the hypothesized relationships between leadership behavior and subordinate well‑being. The best‑fitting model revealed a reciprocal feedback loop: leadership behavior at Time 1 predicted later leadership behavior, subordinate well‑being at Time 2 synchronously influenced leadership at Time 2, and leadership at Time 4 predicted subordinate well‑being at Time 4.

Abstract

The authors used a longitudinal design to investigate the relation between leadership behavior and the well-being of subordinates. Well-being is conceptualized as people's feelings about themselves and the settings in which they live and work. Staff members (N = 562) of 2 Community Trusts participated 4 times in a 14-month period. Five models were formulated to answer 2 questions: What is the most likely direction of the relation between leadership and well-being, and what is the time frame of this relation? The model with the best fit suggested that leadership behavior and subordinate responses are linked in a feedback loop. Leadership behavior at Time 1 influenced leadership behavior at Time 4. Subordinate well-being at Time 2 synchronously influenced leadership behavior at Time 2. Leadership behavior at Time 4 synchronously influenced subordinate well-being at Time 4.