Investigating leadership and employee well-being in higher education

Abstract

PurposeThis article aims to understand the underlying mechanisms through which transformational leadership influences employee job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Specifically, the study explores the mediation role of employee well-being on the relationships between leadership and both employee job satisfaction and turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a quantitative research method, data were collected from 280 academics and professional staff from an Australian regional university. The Mplus software was used for data analysis.FindingsThe results showed that transformational leadership had significant positive impact on employee well-being and job satisfaction while it alleviated employee turnover intentions. Furthermore, employee well-being mediated the effect of transformational leadership on employee job satisfaction and turnover intentions.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was cross-sectional, and data were collected from a convenient sample and therefore minimises our ability to generalise the findings to other contexts.Practical implicationsEffective leadership, employee well-being, job satisfaction and employee turnover are of strategic importance in the higher education sector in Australia and internationally. These findings will therefore provide a basis for university policy makers to craft relevant policies that promote effective leader behaviours and enhance employee well-being as they facilitate employee job satisfaction and minimise turnover intentions among higher education sector employees (i.e. academics and professional staff).Originality/valueOur study provides a unique contribution to knowledge as it explains the mediation effect of employee well-being on the relation between transformational leadership a, job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Influence of Transactional Leadership and Trust in Leader on Employee Well-being and Mediating role of Organizational Climate

“…The results of the current study are consistent with the studies by Ma and Jiang (2018) and Gilbert and Kelloway (2018) that suggest that transactional leadership is positively linked to the innovative behaviour and well-being of employees. The findings are also consistent with the study of (Samad, Muchiri, & Shahid, 2021), there results showed a significant association between transformational leadership and employee well-being and job satisfaction which proves that employees working under such leaders are satisfied with their jobs and possess better mental health, also such employees do not want to leave their workplace thus there is reduced turnover.…”

How does Transformational Leadership Affect Employee Wellbeing? Investigating The Sequential Mediating Effect of Psychological Empowerment and Job Crafting

“…Nevertheless, the literature is still in its infancy and has not fully examined how leadership practices affect subordinates' JC (Hetland et al, 2018;Kim & Beehr, 2018;Afsar et al, 2019). Additionally, some previous studies revealed that TL was linked to employee wellbeing (McMurray et al, 2010;Samad et al, 2021). However, to the authors' knowledge, none of them examined the sequential mediating effects of PE and JC.…”

“…Due to the powerful position of managers and supervisors in the organization, they can influence EW in many ways. For example, negative management behaviors can contribute to employment stress, poor work performance, illness, job dissatisfaction, rotation, anxiety, and depression (Samad et al, 2021).…”

Dampak kepemimpinan transformasional dan pelatihan terhadap employee well-being: Keadilan organisasional sebagai mediator

“…Dilihat dari hasil uji hipotesis pertama (H1), kepemimpinan transformasional dan employee wellbeing berpengaruh secara signifikan (t-statistic 2.475 > 1.96 dan p-value 0.014 < 0.05) dan bersifat positif (β bernilai 0.477). Sesuai dengan pernyataan dari Samad et al (2021) yang saat itu meneliti akademisi dan para staf profesional dari universitas regional Australia, membuktikan bahwa semakin karyawan mempresepsikan pemimpinnya sebagai pemimpin transformasional, semakin karyawan mempersepsikan peningkatan employee well-being dalam suatu perusahaan. Dari hasil uji hipotesis kedua (H2), pelatihan sumber daya manusia berpengaruh signifikan terhadap employee well-being (tstatistic 2,103 > 1.96 dan p-value 0.036 < 0.05) dan bersifat positif (β bernilai 0.416).…”

“…Pemimpin transformasional biasanya akan mempertimbangan dan peduli dengan kekhawatiran dan pertimbangan para pekerjanya. Samad et al (2021) menjelaskan kepemimpinan transformasional memiliki empat dimensi, yaitu: (1) pertimbangan individual, (2) stimulasi intelektual, (3) motivasi inspirasional, dan (4) pengaruh ideal. Oleh karena itu, seluruh dimensi ini perlu diperhatikan dengan cermat dan diimplementasikan dengan baik.…”