The relationship between ambivalence towards supervisor's behavior and employee's mental health

Raphael M Herr; Wendy C Birmingham; Frenk van Harreveld; Annelies E M van Vianen; Joachim E Fischer; Jos A Bosch

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-13533-2

The relationship between ambivalence towards supervisor's behavior and employee's mental health

Sci Rep. 2022 Jun 10;12(1):9555. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-13533-2.

Authors

Raphael M Herr¹, Wendy C Birmingham², Frenk van Harreveld³, Annelies E M van Vianen⁴, Joachim E Fischer⁵, Jos A Bosch^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. raphael.herr@medma.uni-heidelberg.de.
² Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, USA.
³ Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social Psychology Program, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
⁶ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Ambivalence in social interactions has been linked to health-related outcomes in private relationships and recent research has started to expand this evidence to ambivalent leadership at the workplace by showing that ambivalent supervisor-employee relationships are related to higher stress levels in employees. However, the mental health consequences of ambivalent leadership have not been examined yet. Using a multilevel approach, this study estimated associations of ambivalent leadership with mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, vital exhaustion, fatigue) in 993 employees from 27 work groups. A total effect of ambivalent leadership was found for all four mental health measures, as well as within-group and between-group effects. The consistent relationships of ambivalent leadership with higher symptoms of mental ill-health at the individual- (i.e., within-group) and the group-level (i.e., between-group) support the existence of an un-confounded association, as well as group effects of collective ambivalence.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Affect
Humans
Leadership
Mental Health*
Workplace* / psychology