Open AccessWhen a leader job resource can be ambivalent or even destructive: Independence at work as a double-edged sword
Author(s) -
Paola Gatti,
Michelle C. Bligh,
Claudio Giovanni Cortese
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0217482
Subject(s) - ambivalence , independence (probability theory) , social psychology , sword , perspective (graphical) , work engagement , psychology , resource (disambiguation) , work (physics) , public relations , political science , computer science , mechanical engineering , computer network , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , engineering , operating system
Independence at work is commonly considered a job resource which fosters motivation and employee well-being. Somewhat paradoxically, it is embedded in a relationship, and employees’ independence also hinges on their leaders’ willingness to grant it. Analyzing this resource as part of the leader-follower relationship can be useful in exploring its beneficial, ambivalent, or detrimental reciprocal effects. We present two Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) which analyze leaders’ and followers’ independence as antecedents, and work engagement and emotional exhaustion as outcomes. We test our models on 112 pairs of UK workers, finding a significant partner effect between leaders’ independence and followers’ exhaustion. Our findings confirm the utility of a dyadic perspective for investigating leadership and well-being at work, and suggest improvements for leadership training and measures fostering job well-being.