Rewarding and sustainable health-promoting leadership

The main focus is the development of health-promoting leadership.

This research project examines the role of leadership in relation to employees’ psychological health and well-being. Special consideration is given to the differences in leadership between three European countries: Finland, Germany and Sweden. Leadership is considered as a social process which is affected not only by individual behaviour but also situational, team, and organizational characteristics.

The aim of this project is two-fold: First, to find out which facets of leaders’ behaviour are of special importance to sustain the well-being and health of the team members or subordinates; second, to find out, if this behaviour can be successfully trained. Thus, this project is a combination of a longitudinal study and an intervention study. Questionnaire data will be gathered on three occasions during a three-year period in Finland, Sweden and Germany. Training interventions are conducted in Germany and Sweden. All three countries include municipal employees in their samples.