A Fair Share of Work: Is Fairness of Task Distribution a Mediator Between Transformational Leadership and Follower Emotional Exhaustion?

Tabea E Scheel; Kathleen Otto; Tim Vahle-Hinz; Torsten Holstad; Thomas Rigotti

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02690

A Fair Share of Work: Is Fairness of Task Distribution a Mediator Between Transformational Leadership and Follower Emotional Exhaustion?

Front Psychol. 2019 Nov 29:10:2690. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02690. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Tabea E Scheel¹, Kathleen Otto², Tim Vahle-Hinz³, Torsten Holstad⁴, Thomas Rigotti⁵

Affiliations

¹ International Institute of Management and Economic Education, Work and Organizational Psychology, Europa-Universitaet Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany.
² Department of Psychology, Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
³ Department of Organizational, Business, and Social Psychology, Psychologische Hochschule Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ DB Cargo AG, Mainz, Germany.
⁵ Psychological Institute, Work, Organizational and Business Psychology, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.

Abstract

Drawing on social resource theory and the norm of equity, this research proposes fairness of task distribution as a mediating mechanism of the well-established relationship between transformational leadership and followers' well-being, conceptualizing the latter as low emotional exhaustion. Using data from 479 German employees in a three-wave longitudinal study, we found transformational leadership to be related to fair task distribution over time. The perceived fairness of task distribution mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and follower emotional exhaustion (structural equation modeling) when excluding stabilities. Our results also show a reverse causation effect for emotional exhaustion and transformational leadership over a longer time period (within 20 months), suggesting a circular process, as well as a mediation by fairness of task distribution when excluding stabilities. The findings emphasize the importance of fair task distribution by leaders for followers' well-being.

Keywords: German employees; emotional exhaustion; fairness of task distribution; follower well-being; transformational leadership.