Journal of Occupational Health Psychology—Leadership and Health/Well-being

Occupational stress has been shown as a major risk for workers’ physical and mental health and mortality. Leaders play an important role in shaping the work environment and their behaviors are often associated with their subordinates’ health/well-being (Arnold, 2017) but also their own well-being (Kaluza, Boer, Buengeler, & Van Dick, 2019).

• Submit 2,000 word proposal: August 31, 2020 (Authors can submit proposals before the due date and the editorial team will aim to provide feedback a soon as possible)
• Review of Proposals and Invitations to Authors: September 15, 2020
• Full Manuscript Deadline: January 31, 2021

• Ilke Inceoglu, PhD, University of Exeter Business School
• Kara A. Arnold, PhD, Memorial University of Newfoundland
• Hannes Leroy, PhD, Rotterdam School of Management, University of Exeter Business School
• Jonas W. B. Lang, PhD, University of Ghent, University of Exeter Business School
• Ute Stephan, PhD, King’s College London

The purpose of this special issue is to publish empirical research to better understand (1) relationships between a leader’s behavior and well-being and the well-being of their followers, and (2) how to develop interventions to help leaders improve their own well-being and that of their followers in organizations.

We welcome studies of leaders at all levels of the organization from middle managers to strategic leaders such as CEOs and entrepreneurs.

We invite submissions of empirical papers that apply rigorous methodological standards (for example, longitudinal and diary study designs, use of multisource data; temporal multilevel designs).

We welcome the submission of intervention studies.

The submission process will consist of an initial proposal submission (2000 words, not including references).

Papers that focus on research design and methodological issues will be considered if these present a breakthrough or brand-new perspectives in research on leadership and health/well-being.

Topics that might be addressed by papers in this special issue may include, but are not limited to:

• Changes in relationships of leadership behavior or leader well-being and employee well-being over time
• Boundary conditions in relationships of leadership behavior and employee well-being, or the leader’s own well-being and behavior
• Contextual factors that impact the extent to which a leader’s behavior and well-being may influence that of their employees
• Examining trade-off effects in the relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance and well-being
• Non-linear relationships between leadership behaviors and employee well-being
• Reciprocal and cross-over effects in the relationship between a leader’s well-being and employee well-being
• Multilevel perspectives: for example, examining how leadership behavior or well-being may affect a team; whether senior leaders’ behaviors is linked to the well-being of employees/ well-being in organizations more widely (for example, through middle managers) how well-being in groups collectively emerges
• Examining the effectiveness of interventions to help leaders to improve the well-being of their employees
• Contextual factors that support/hinder interventions in organizations to help leaders improve their own well-being and that of their employees
• Studies that examine how technology can support leaders with looking after their own health and/or that of their employees (e.g. How effective are these? What theoretical frameworks can be applied?)
• Factors and processes relevant to the leaders’ well-being (e.g., leaders’ work/non-work life interference etc.)
• Studies focusing on the health and well-being of entrepreneurs as they lead their businesses and (start to) lead employees

Proposal submissions should be no longer than 2000 words (not including the abstract and references) and address the following:

• Abstract
• Theoretical background, research objectives and contribution to the field
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion and conclusion

Prospective authors should submit a proposal to the journal’s manuscript submission portal using the “Special Issue Article Proposal” article type by August 31, 2020 (Authors can submit proposals before the due date and the editorial team will aim to provide feedback a soon as possible).

Decisions on proposals and invitations to submit full manuscripts will be sent to potential authors by September 15, 2020.

Full manuscripts must be prepared according to the manuscript submission guidelines on the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology homepage.

Manuscript submissions for approved proposals will be due by January 31, 2021.

Submissions will undergo an initial editorial review by the editorial team; those meeting criteria for further consideration will be peer reviewed by masked review.

The invitation of a full paper (following proposal submission) does not guarantee publication.

For (planned) intervention studies (referred to as a hybrid registered report: see Hogrefe, 2016) we would carry out an initial results-blind review.

Proposals submitted for an initial results-blind review should expand on the Methodology.

Although approved intervention studies will be provisionally accepted, the final acceptance is determined by quality of the full manuscript (regardless of results) which will be peer reviewed by masked review.

Although the above research has grown in recent years, the processes through which leaders’ behaviors affect their subordinates’ health/well-being are poorly understood (Inceoglu, Thomas, Chu, Plans, & Gerbasi, 2018).

Little is also known about the reciprocal relationships of leaders’ own health/well-being, and their leadership behaviors (Kaluza et al, 2019).

More theoretical development and empirical investigation are needed to understand the possible causal mechanisms underlying these processes (Inceoglu et al, 2018; Kaluza et al, 2019), also for different types of leaders (e.g. entrepreneurs: Stephan, 2018).

A better theoretical understanding of these processes will have very practical implications related to job designs, prevention, and interventions.