Abstract
Health-oriented supportive leadership behavior is a key factor in reducing work stress and promoting health. Employees in the health sector are subject to a heavy workload, and it has been shown that 40% of them show permanent health problems. A supportive leadership behavior requires the manager’s awareness of the employees’ well-being. However, little is yet known about how medical and nursing managers perceive the well-being of their staff. To explore this issue, we conducted a total of 37 semi-standardized interviews with 37 chief physicians (CPs), senior physicians (SPs), and senior nurses (SNs) in one German hospital. The interviews were content-analyzed based on the definitions of strain of the ‘Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’. Results show that hospital managers are aware of fatigue and further consequences such as deterioration of the team atmosphere, work ethics, treatment quality, and an increased feeling of injustice among employees. Most managers reported sick leaves as a result of psychosomatic complaints due to the permanent overstrain situation at work in the hospital. Results of this qualitative study are discussed in the light of health-oriented management relating to relevant stress models and to findings concerning staff shortages.
Highlights
Executives play a key role in shaping psychosocial working conditions by a health promoting leadership style [1]
We identified only one statement of an senior nurses (SNs), who said that employees who like to work and work overtime hours get financial support und are pleased with that
Regarding positive long-term strain consequences, we found that managers perceive a good team atmosphere, less downtimes, and low staff turnover
Summary
Executives play a key role in shaping psychosocial working conditions by a health promoting leadership style [1]. A common feature of the leadership behavior associated with mental health is an orientation towards a good relationship with the person that is led, by taking his or her opinion, needs, and well-being into account. For a health-oriented leadership in this sense and to offer social support, a leader must be able and willing to pay attention to the staff member’s subjective perspective. Adverse working conditions (“work stress”) have a significant impact on the development of mental disorders such as depressive symptoms and adverse effects on emotion regulation capacity [5,6]. Public Health 2020, 17, 4660; doi:10.3390/ijerph17134660 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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