How do leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate shape employee exhaustion and engagement? Toward a cascading‐effects model

• Author: Antonia J. Kaluza,Katherine Xin,Marcel Kern,Sebastian C. Schuh,Rolf Dick
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22000
• Published date: 01 July 2020

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

How do leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate

shape employee exhaustion and engagement? Toward a

cascading-effects model

Antonia J. Kaluza

1

| Sebastian C. Schuh

2

| Marcel Kern

1

| Katherine Xin

2

|

Rolf van Dick

1

1

Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt,

Germany

2

China Europe International Business School

(CEIBS), Shanghai, China

Correspondence

Antonia J. Kaluza, Goethe University

Frankfurt, Department of Psychology,

Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6, 60323 Frankfurt,

Germany.

Email: kaluza@psych.uni-frankfurt.de

Abstract

Although researchers and practitioners increasingly focus on health promotion in

organizations, research has been mainly fragmented and fails to integrate different

organizational levels in terms of their effects on employee health. Drawing on organi-

zational climate and social identity research, we present a cascading model of organi-

zational health climate and demonstrate how and when leaders' perceptions of

organizational health climate are linked to employee well-being. We tested our model

in two multisource studies (N

Study 1

= 65 leaders and 291 employees; N

Study 2

= 401

leader–employee dyads). Results showed that leaders' perceptions of organizational

health climate were positively related to their health mindsets (i.e., their health

awareness). These in turn were positively associated with their health-promoting

leadership behavior, which ultimately went along with better employee well-being.

Additionally, in Study 1, the relationship between perceived organizational health cli-

mate and leaders' health mindsets was moderated by their organizational identifica-

tion. High leader identification strengthened the relationship between perceived

organizational health climate and leaders' health mindsets. These findings have

important implications for theory and practice as they show how the dynamics of an

organizational health climate can unfold in organizations and how it is related to

employee well-being via the novel concept of health-promoting leadership.

KEYWORDS

employee health, health mindset, health-promoting leadership, organizational health climate,

organizational identification

1|INTRODUCTION

Research has identified several key factors that affect employee well-

being at work. These include variables at the individual level, such as per-

sonality traits (e.g., Soto, 2015; Strickhouser, Zell, & Krizan, 2017); task-

related variables, such as time pressure and job control (e.g., Demerouti,

Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001; Elovainio, Kivimäki, Steen, &

Kalliomäki-Levanto, 2000); and aspects of the immediate work context,

such as leader behavior (e.g., Montano, Reeske, Franke, & Hüffmeier,

2017; Skakon, Nielsen, Borg, & Guzman, 2010). Understanding these

factors is crucial because low levels of employee well-being not only lead

to personal suffering but are also costly for organizations and society at

large (Cooper & Dewe, 2008; Danna & Griffin, 1999). Indeed, the eco-

nomic costs of work-related illness and accidents are estimated to equal

4% of the global GDP (US$2.8 trillion) annually (Takala et al., 2014,

p. 329). The number of premature deaths related to work-related illness

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.22000

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reprodu ction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Authors Human Resource Management Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hum Resour Manage. 2020;59:359–377. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm 359

may be as high as 2 million per year (Takala et al., 2014). As a result, the

topic of well-being in the workplace has received significant attention in

research and human resource management (e.g., Conway, Fu, Monks,

Alfes, & Bailey, 2016).

However, work-related well-being and behaviordo not occur in iso-

lation. They are embedded in a larger context and influenced by condi-

tions and perspectives within organizations, represented to some

extent by organizational climate (Kuenzi & Schminke, 2009). Indeed,

organizational climate has been shown to be significantly related to

employee well-being (e.g., Parker et al., 2003). Surprisingly, however,

organizational health climate has received little attention (Zweber,

Henning, & Magley, 2016). Organizational health climateas one facet of

organizational climate is defined as organizational practices and stan-

dards that are applied when addressing employee health issues

(e.g., Ernsting, Schwarzer, Lippke, & Schneider, 2013; Ribisl & Reischl,

1993; Zweber etal., 2016). It thus describes howan organization deals

with the health of its employees, what priority it attaches to employee

well-being,and to what extent healthy work conditions are promoted.

Preliminary research exploring the novel concept of organizational

health climate has suggested that there is a strong link with employee

well-being (e.g., Zweber et al., 2016). However, the few existing stud-

ies have largely focused on the direct relationship between organiza-

tional health climate and employee health. There has been little

research exploring the mechanisms that might explain how organiza-

tional health climate is related to employee well-being. This neglects a

central insight of organizational climate theories: the organizational

climate rarely has a direct effect on employee outcomes. Rather, its

effects are transmitted through leaders' or employees' actions, as

research on other climate facets has shown (e.g., D'Amato & Zijlstra,

2008; Tucker, Ogunfowora, & Ehr, 2016). As Schneider, Ehrhart, May-

er, Saltz, and Niles-Jolly (2005) pointed out, research on organizational

climate often implicitly assumes mediating factors without explicitly

testing them. Our review of the literature revealed that this applies to

the study of organizational health climate. Hence, we lack knowledge

about whether and how intermediate levels can transmit the effects

of organizational health climate to employees.

Moreover, there has been an implicit assumption that organiza-

tional health climate generally has positive effects. However, this

might not always be the case, because the influence of climate can be

moderated by individual and contextual factors (e.g., Mayer, Ehrhart, &

Schneider, 2009). To achieve a more complete understanding of orga-

nizational health climate, it is therefore important to identify condi-

tions that can increase or reduce its effects. If organizations seek to

benefit from organizational health climate, it is crucial to understand

when and why organizational health climate is related to employee

well-being, and when it is not.

To address these issues, we take an integrative approach and link

health-related variables at several organizational levels. In doing so,

we make several contributions to the literature. First, by drawing on

current perspectives on organizational climate (Schneider, Ehrhart, &

Macey, 2013), we argue that leaders' cognitions and behaviors are

crucial for linking organizational health climate to improved employee

well-being. The behavior of leaders is largely determined by their per-

ceptions of implicit and explicit organizational policies and procedures,

which identify desired and permitted behavior (Zohar & Luria, 2005).

We propose that leaders' perceptions of organizational health norms

and practices (i.e., the organizational health climate) serve as an impor-

tant antecedent to their health-promoting leadership behavior by

developing their health mindsets (i.e., their awareness of and sensitiv-

ity toward employees' health issues; Franke, Felfe, & Pundt, 2014).

Second, we focus on a novel, health-promoting form of leadership

behavior. General leadership styles (such as transformational leader-

ship) tend to be vague about the specific health-relatedactions leaders

can adopt to enhance employee well-being (Franke et al., 2014).

Accordingly, these leadership styles have only small to moderate rela-

tionships with employee health (e.g., Montano et al., 2017). Thus, to

fully understand how leaderscan promote employee health, it is crucial

to examine specific leadership behaviors that explicitly focus on

employee well-being, such as designing working conditions that are

beneficial for employee well-being, and being a role modelfor health-

sustaining behavior at work (Franke et al., 2014; Gurt, Schwennen, &

Elke, 2011). Initial studies have suggested that health-specific leader

behavior is a significantly stronger predictor of employee well-being

than other general leadership styles (Franke et al., 2014; Vincent,

2011). However, surprisingly, relevant research is limited. The present

study contributes to the novel concept of health-promoting leadership

by expanding its nomological net throughsimultaneously examining its

links to key antecedents (i.e., organizational health climate) and core

outcomes (employee emotionalexhaustion and work engagement).

Third, we argue that the relationship between leaders' perceived

organizational health climate and their health mindsets is contingent

on their organizational identification (i.e., their feelings of oneness

with or belonging to the organization; Ashforth & Mael, 1989). By

drawing on theories of social and organizational identification

(Ashforth, Harrison, & Corley, 2008; Riketta, 2005), we propose that

the relationship between organizational health climate and leaders'

health mindsets depend on the degree to which leaders identify with

their organizations. A central tenet of social identity theory is that

individuals who strongly identify with a social group are particularly

likely to internalize this group's norms, values, and practices

(Ashforth & Mael, 1989). Hence, leaders who strongly identify with

their organization may more readily adopt the organization's health

climate. Examining the moderating impact of identification is impor-

tant because it may help to explain why organizational health climate

affects some leaders more than others.

Finally, our study has important practical implications. Identifying

central dynamics and boundary conditions of organizational health cli-

mates can help organizations to promote a climate that supports

employee well-being. In addition, by identifying the core antecedents

of health-promoting leadership behavior, interventions and training

can be developed to support leaders in displaying such behavior

toward subordinates. In summary, we integrate insights from climate

research and social identity theory and propose a multilevel cascading

model of organizational health climate.

360 KALUZA ET AL.