Managers who inspire staff to perform well may be harming employee health

Washington D.C : A new study has suggested that managers, who inspire their staff to perform above and beyond the call of duty, may be actually harming their employees' health over time.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) findings suggest that constant pressure from these 'transformational leaders' may increase sickness absence levels among employees.

They also indicate that some vulnerable employees in groups with transformational leaders may in the long term have increased sickness absence rates if they ignore their ill-health and frequently show up for work while ill, known as presenteeism.

Researchers Karina Nielsen and Kevin Daniels looked for the first time at the relationship between presenteeism, transformational leadership and sickness absence rates. The results have implications for how organisations might effectively deal with employees' health and well-being.

Prof Nielsen said that it is possible that high performance expectations pose a risk to both healthy and vulnerable employees and the motivational aspects of transformational leadership may backfire. Transformational leaders may promote self-sacrifice of vulnerable employees for the greater good of the group by encouraging them to ignore their illnesses and exert themselves. This can lead to increased risks of sickness absence in the long term.

Prof Daniels said that the assumption that 'more transformational leadership is better' does not hold over time. As role models, transformational leaders should display healthy behaviours when motivating people, they should monitor and check them, and encourage workers to look after their own health. Managers need to strike a balance, they can still encourage staff to perform well, but in a way that is not at the expense of their health and well-being.

The authors recommend that transformational leadership training should include health-related elements.

The research is published in the journal Work & Stress.