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Do transformational leaders make you sick?

Karina Nielsen, professor of work and organisational psychology at the Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia, challenges the view that transformational leadership is wholly positive – especially at a time when NHS bosses are presiding over major service changes.

Transformational leadership is thought to be a good thing. Transformational leaders are those who encourage their employees to perform above and beyond the call of duty and to sacrifice their own interest for the betterment of the group. 

There are four main types of behaviours that make up transformational leadership. First, transformational leaders are those who formulate a clear and positive vision for the future – they provide a way forward and outline what can be achieved by their team. They also make it clear how the team’s work fits within that of the overall organisation. 

Secondly, they are role models: they walk the walk and talk the talk and are conscious of displaying desirable behaviours themselves. They are open about their values and encourage team collaboration. 

Thirdly, they intellectually stimulate their teams to make independent decisions and challenge existing ways of doing work. 

Finally, they act as coaches and mentors encouraging their employees to reach their full potential. Transformational leaders are attentive to individuals’ needs and abilities and support them at their developmental levels. 

Surely transformational leadership is a good thing? 

There is substantial evidence that transformational leadership is related to employee performance and, in the short term, employee wellbeing. In the short term, transformational leaders help employees see their jobs as being meaningful, experience higher levels of autonomy, and help employees understand what their role is within the organisation. 

Transformational leaders also make employees believe in themselves and their ability to handle challenges in the job. For example, transformational leadership is related to employee self-efficacy. It has also been found to be related to employee job satisfaction, wellbeing and work engagement. 

However, the question is whether performing above and beyond the call of duty is a good thing in the long run.

Does transformational leadership have a dark side? 

We know from the stress literature that a high level of activity in the long run is not healthy. The effort-recovery model suggests that when people put in extra effort, they need some time to recover afterwards. This raises the question of whether there is a ‘dark side’ to transformational leadership. Is it healthy to perform above and beyond the call of duty in the long run? 

As mentioned above, transformational leaders transform the needs, values, preferences, and aspirations of employees, and they identify and promote a particular social identity among their team. Social identity theory suggests that employees within a team will develop a shared understanding of their leader and that this understanding will shape their behaviours.

For instance, it is possible that if employees within a team feel their leader expresses values that if they do not show up for work the team will suffer, or if the leader promotes a macho culture where it is frowned upon to stay at home for a common cold, then employees are more likely to engage in presenteeism behaviours, i.e. showing up for work while ill. 

In a recent study, it was found that employees in teams who rate their leader as transformational have higher levels of sickness absenteeism 12 months after rating their leader. 

This suggests that transformational leadership may indeed have a dark side. Transformational leadership may, over time, lead to increased sickness absenteeism. However, a relationship between transformational leadership and sickness absenteeism could not be found 24 months later. 

The study also looked at whether certain groups of employees were more at risk. It was found that for employees who tended to show up for work while ill, the negative effects were likely to occur after a longer period of time, i.e. after 24 months. 

In other words, if employees work in a team with a transformational leader and tend to show up for work while ill, they are more likely to report higher levels of sickness absenteeism after 24 months. This finding suggests that employees who ignore their ill-health cannot continue to do so over a longer period of time and are likely in the long run to fall so ill they have to take sick leave. 

Should we not have transformational leaders? 

It is important to remember that it is not necessarily a bad thing to be a transformational leader. Transformational leadership is good for a lot of things, both for the organisation in the form of performance but also for employees in terms of their wellbeing. 

The implications of recent research are that leaders and organisations should consider employee health and wellbeing when aiming to be transformational. They can do this in several ways.

What leaders can do 

Firstly, they can include health and wellbeing in the team’s vision. Rather than having a vision that says ‘we should be better than anyone else’, for example, they could have a vision that says ‘in this team we have happy and productive workers’ or ‘in this team we care about each other and we look after each other at the same time as we perform well’. 

Leaders can also be aware of their function as role models and not show up for work while they are ill. They can also express values that it is important to look after your health and that there are no expectations that people show up for work while ill. 

They can tell people it is better to stay at home rather than come in and pass a bug to others. They can also express values that the team can perform their jobs without the individual employee if an individual is ill. 

Additionally, leaders can also stimulate their employees to do their job in such a way that it doesn’t harm their health and make sure they have a chance to take some time off work or have a lower workload after a time with many deadlines and a high workload. 

Finally, when they consider employees’ needs, they can take into consideration how employees can reach their full potential without ignoring symptoms of ill-health.

What organisations can do 

Organisations should not have a ‘zero absence’ policy but have realistic expectations of employees’ sickness absence rates, and they should not include ‘zero absence’ in line managers’ key performance indicators. Organisations can also develop policies and practices for “vulnerable” employees with chronic illnesses. 

Also, they can train managers to consider the health and wellbeing of their employees at the same time as encouraging them to perform well. They can also train line managers in spotting symptoms of ill-health and how to manage difficult conversations; for example, if the line manager suspects mental health problems could be an issue. They should also be trained in how to deal with chronic illnesses. They can also provide access to Employee Assistance Programmes for employees and other support. Finally, they can incorporate health and wellbeing discussions in performance appraisals. 

In summary, although transformational leadership is a good thing, it may have negative consequences in the long run, especially for “vulnerable” employees. It is important that leaders and organisations do not only focus on productivity and performance, they also need to consider the health and wellbeing of employees.

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