SafetyInsights.org

This study explored the links between leaders providing “daily empowering leadership” and how this influenced follower/employee proactive behaviours the next morning.

Proactive behaviours were “risk taking” (when employees take personal risks or go out on a limb to improve their work performance despite the risk of failing) and voice (suggesting ideas, concerns, opinions etc. about work-related issues to improve performance).

Interestingly, they also looked at how nightly sleep affected proactive behaviours.

Key findings included:

·        Daily empowering leadership behaviours from leaders had a positive carry-over effect on employee proactive goal setting the next morning.

·        Daily empowering leadership, like providing situational accountability, ambiguity (that is, not having the answers and thereby facilitating employees to become solution-orientated and less about following instructions) and autonomy exerts “daily motivational effects” on employee goal setting behaviours

·        Poor sleep quality results in low levels of proactive goal setting. In turn, “lower employee start-of-day proactive goals result in downstream effects on reduced risk taking and voice behavior during the work day” (p26)

·        Moreover, even when employees are provided with empowerment opportunities, they can’t capitalise on this if sleep quality was poor

·        That is, the authors argue that employees either “do not recognise, do not choose to, or are not able to capitalise on the empowering leadership opportunities … when they obtain lower levels of sleep quality” (p26)

·        Sleep disruption has been linked with a myriad of issues, like increased deceptive behaviour, impaired leadership qualities, heightened cyberloafing, higher workplace injury, inability to suppress personal biases and greater workplace deviance behaviours (followers and leaders alike)

Thus, a key learning is that despite opportunities for followers, and leaders, to thrive, thriving is significantly impacted by sleep disruption.

I’ve also linked to some related studies on workplace deviate etc. and sleep.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.0936

Link to the LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_another-holiday-mini-post-this-study-explored-activity-7016169714829705216-Qhi4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Related studies:

1. : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6929919003540738048?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A%28urn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A6929919003540738048%2CFEED_DETAIL%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse%29

2. : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lack-sleep-development-leader-follower-relationships-over-hutchinson