Transformational leadership development to reduce employee sickness absencea randomized controlled trial

Resumen

Purpose – As many organizations are facing increases in sickness absence among their employees, the potential of transformational leadership for enhancing employee health and more effectively managing sick leave has been highlighted in the literature. However, the existing empirical evidence on that association is inconclusive and ambiguous, based on non-experimental research methods and subjective outcome measures. Moreover, it remains unclear whether a transformational leader might actually improve employee health or rather increase motivation to attend work. In addition, there is a limited knowledge of relevant boundary conditions in that association. Finally, previous research pointed out a lack of understanding regarding the specific behaviors with which a transformational leader might influence employee sickness absence. The present dissertation contributes to addressing these ambiguities and gaps by first identifying specific leadership behaviors with implications for sickness absence and subsequently developing as well as testing the effectiveness of a transformational leadership intervention for reducing employee sick leave. Furthermore, it analyses the underlying mechanism in that association and the role of leader’s perceived organizational support as a potentially relevant boundary condition. Design/Methodology – For addressing these objectives a mixed method research was applied. First, 79 Spanish occupational health professionals participated in 11 focus group sessions on the wider theme of employee sickness absence. Applying the principles of content analysis and aided by the software NVivo 12, a series of leader behaviors with implications for employee sick leave were identified. Second, in order to test the effectiveness of a transformational leadership intervention for reducing employee sick leave, a randomized controlled trial was carried out among 117 managers of two companies based in Spain. Transformational leadership and perceived organizational support were measured through self-evaluation by the participating leaders, while the measure of employee sickness absence was based on objectively recorded social security data. Results – The qualitative study produced 18 specific leadership behaviors that might impact employee sickness absence. Fourteen of these could be associated to the framework of transformational leadership, mainly to the dimensions of idealized influence (n = 4) and individual consideration (n = 6), and 3 to transactional leadership. Regarding the field experiment, the results of an ANCOVA carried out in SPSS 7 suggested that the intervention was effective in reducing overall follower sickness absence days. Moreover, a multigroup linear regression in MPlus provided evidence for the moderation effect of leader’s perceived organizational support in the association of transformational leadership and employee short-term sickness absence. However, results regarding the underlying mechanism in that association were inconclusive. Conclusion – Addressing the so far mixed results on the association of transformational leadership and employee sickness absence, the present dissertation provides evidence for a causal link between both constructs based on a randomized controlled trial. Moreover, it highlights the importance of leader’s perceived organizational support as a relevant boundary condition in that association. Further research is warranted for understanding whether a transformational leader actually improves employee health or rather enhances motivation to attend work. Finally, the dissertation offers an evidence-based, actionable intervention for practitioners seeking to better manage sickness absence in their organizations