The Double-Edged Sword of Manager Caring Behavior: Implications for Employee Wellbeing

Janet A. Boekhorst, Rebecca Hewett, Amanda Shantz, Jessica R.L. Good

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    While managers play a critical role in supporting employee wellbeing, prior research suggests that doing so can take a toll on managers themselves. However, we know little about the potential implications of this for employees. Drawing from the leadership-wellbeing literature and social psychological theories of guilt, we propose that manager caring behavior is associated with both positive (vitality) and negative (guilt) employee wellbeing. We find support for these relationships in Study 1 (N = 264) with a time-separated survey. In Study 2, we replicate these findings, and in addition, we examine a negative perceptual response to manager care: employee-rated manager role overload. Drawing on perceptual salience research, we propose that the negative relationship between manager care and employee-rated manager role overload is exacerbated in a team environment where employees fail to care for each other (i.e., a weak caring climate). Study 2 (N = 360) largely supports our hypotheses with multilevel, time-separated field data.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)507-521
    Number of pages15
    JournalJournal of Occupational Health Psychology
    Volume26
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021

    Keywords

    • Caring climate
    • Employee wellbeing
    • Guilt
    • Manager caring behavior
    • Overload

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