Do Organizational Health Climates and Leader Health Mindsets Enhance Employees' Work Engagement and Job Crafting Amid the Pandemic?

Yuhyung Shin,Won-Moo Hur

doi:10.3390/ijerph182212123

Yuhyung Shin, Won-Moo Hur

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182212123

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Abstract

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many health- and stress-related symptoms among employees, surprisingly few studies have assessed the effect of a health-promoting organizational climate or leadership on employee work outcomes. To fill this gap, our research proposed and tested a moderated mediation model involving perceived organizational health climate (POHC), leader health mindset (LHM), work engagement, and job crafting. Our propositions were tested using two-wave data collected from 301 South Korean employees. As predicted, POHC was positively related to employees’ job crafting, and this relationship was mediated by work engagement. Moreover, the positive relationship between POHC and work engagement and the indirect effect of POHC on job crafting through work engagement were more pronounced when LHM was high than when it was low. These findings support the job demands–resources model and social exchange theory and have implications for helping employees maintain their work attitudes and behavior in times of crisis.

Highlights

Our research aims to examine the effect of perceived organizational health climates (POHCs) on employee work outcomes and explore a boundary condition that boosts the positive effect of POHC in the pandemic context
Grounded in the job demands–resources (JD–R) model and social exchange theory (SET), we propose a positive relationship between POHC, work engagement, and job crafting and the moderating effect of leader health mindset (LHM) on this relationship
The results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that the proposed six-factor model (i.e., POHC, leader health mindset, work engagement, job crafting, positive affectivity, and negative affectivity) fit the data well in an absolute sense (χ2 (608) = 1214.30, p < 0.05, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.91, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.90, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.06)

Summary

Introduction

While COVID-19 research highlights the role of positive or supportive leadership and organizational climates as a buffer against stress experienced by employees [3], surprisingly few studies have assessed the effects of a health-promoting climate or leadership style on work outcomes in the context of the pandemic. Whether health-promoting climates are conducive to employee work outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and under what conditions this positive effect is strengthened constitute timely and necessary research agendas. To answer these questions, our research aims to examine the effect of perceived organizational health climates (POHCs) on employee work outcomes and explore a boundary condition that boosts the positive effect of POHC in the pandemic context

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