This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Resource Center
Summary
This study aims to answer whether health-promoting leadership and leaders’ skills can improve followers’ job satisfaction and turnover intention. Health-promoting leadership behaviors refer to a mixture of leadership behaviors to promote a healthy workplace for employees. The authors examined the indirect effects of health-promoting leadership by creating working conditions that foster a healthy workplace. Another concept the authors studied is leaders’ listening skills, defined as an appreciating and non-judgmental way of perceiving and responding to employees. The authors argued that health-promoting leadership and leaders’ listening skills would increase employees’ job satisfaction and decrease turnover intention. They also tested whether job satisfaction can reduce turnover intention.
Method
The sample included 354 Austrian and Slovene workers in different industrial sectors recruited via a German market research company. Among the respondents, 49.7% were male and 50.3% female. About 26.8% of the participants were up to 30 years old, 33.1% were between 31 and 40 years old, 25.1% were between 41 and 50 years old, and 15% were 51 years and older. Approximately 42.2% of participants had a graduate degree.
Key Findings
1. Health-promoting leadership and leaders’ listening skills were positively associated with job satisfaction.
2. Job satisfaction was negatively related to turnover intention.
3. Health-promoting leadership and leaders’ listening skills indirectly and negatively affected turnover intention via job satisfaction.
4. Leaders’ listening skills more strongly predicted job satisfaction than health-promoting leadership.
Implications for practice
Companies should 1) incorporate health-promoting leadership and listening skills in leadership training and education programs and 2) implement workplace health promotion culture in organizations.
Reference
Bregenzer, A., Milfelner, B., Šarotar Žižek, S., & Jiménez, P. (2020). Health-Promoting Leadership and Leaders’ Listening Skills Have an Impact on the Employees’ Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention. International Journal of Business Communication, online advanced publication.
Location of Article
This article is available online at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2329488420963700
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