PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF EMPLOYEE-PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP INDUCED STRESS

ABSTRACT

This study was aimed at developing and validating an objective instrument for measuring leadership-induced stress; and investigating the extent to which employees’ perceptions of important leadership-relevant workplace psychosocial factors would predict their perceptions of leadership- induced stress.
To achieve this, three major activities—which culminated in the testing of five major hypotheses—were carried out. First was a pilot study involving 93 participants and in which the Leadership-Induced Stress Inventory (LISI) was developed. Second, tagged phase 1, featured 155 participants and entailed the validation of the LISI. Third, tagged phase 2, involved the prediction of leadership-induced stress by the psychosocial factors in a sample of 622 junior and middle-cadre employees.
Preliminary results showed that the developed LISI comprised eight components; and was reliable and valid. Another set of results, from a moderated regression analysis performed, revealed that certain psychosocial factors predicted leadership-induced stress as expected while the prediction of others was contrary to expectations. Specifically, while married employees reported less leadership-induced stress than single employees as expected, affective trust did not predict leadership-induced stress significantly, contrary to expectations. But interactional justice negatively predicted leadership-induced stress as expected. Although leader-follower relationship (which is popularly known as leader- member exchange, and thus abbreviated as LMX) and coworker support did not moderate the relationship between affective trust and leadership-induced stress, they did moderate the relationship between interactional justice and leadership-induced stress, with post hoc analyses generating important insights. First, among the eight groups of employees specified in the post hoc analysis, the employees who perceived high interactional justice, high LMX, and high coworker support reported the least leadership-induced stress while their counterparts who perceived low interactional justice, low LMX, and low coworker
support reported the highest leadership-induced stress. Second, for the other groups of employees, the roles played by LMX and coworker support in enhancing or buffering the influence of high or low interactional justice, respectively, on leadership-induced stress depended on the relative levels (high or low) of LMX and coworker support. Cognitive trust emerged as the single, most important predictor of leadership-induced stress in the study. Other results from a two-way ANOVA revealed that sex and job cadre of employees did not significantly interact to influence leadership-induced stress, but that they independently influenced leadership-induced stress such that female employees reported less leadership-induced stress than their male counterparts, while middle-cadre employees reported less leadership- induced stress than their junior counterparts.
The results were discussed in the light of the reviewed theoretical and empirical literatures, with conclusion focusing on the obvious existence and prediction of leadership-induced stress with leadership and organization-relevant psychosocial factors among Nigerian employees. Recommendations emphasized a comprehensive assessment of leadership- induced stress in Nigerian employees using the newly developed LISI; and revision of existing leadership training programmes as well as developing new ones from the standpoints of the findings of this study.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CONTENTS
PAGE
Title Page
Certification
Dedication ii
iii
Acknowledgements iv
Table of Contents
List of Tables/Figures vii
ix
Abstract xi
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1
1.1 Background to the Study 5
1.2 Statement of Problem 16
1.3 Objectives of the Study 17
1.4 Research Questions 18
1.5 Hypotheses 18
1.6 Significance of the Study 19
1.7 Scope and Delimitation of the Study 21
1.8 Operational Definitions of Terms 22
1.9 Conceptual Framework 24
–Conceptual Model 25
1.9.1 Theoretical Framework 31
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review 35
Theoretical Background 35
Review of Empirical Studies 48
CHAPTER THREE
Method 103
Development of the Leadership-induced Stress Scale 103
Validation of the Leadership-Induced Stress Scale and Prediction of Leadership-Induced Stress 104
3.2.1 Study Location 104
3.2.2 Sample 105
3.2.3 Research Design 107
3.2.4 Instruments 107
3.2.5 Procedures 113
CHAPTER FOUR
Results 117
Summary of Findings 138
CHAPTER FIVE
Discussion 140
Conclusion 162
Recommendations 164
Contributions to Knowledge 165
References 167
Appendices