Security providing leadership and work stress in Spanish Air Force.

Leadership plays a key role in the well-being of military personnel, either contributing to health improvement or, conversely, becoming a source of stress. In the present study we propose that security providing leadership can reduce work stress in the military context. Furthermore, we suggest that security-providing leaders exert their positive influence on work stress by creating a psychological safety climate and preventing organizational dehumanization. A sample of 204 members (72.5% men) of the Spanish Air Force volunteered to participate in this empirical study and completed an online questionnaire and both the direct and indirect structural equation models were analyzed. Results show a negative relationship between security providing leadership and work stress. Additionally, organizational dehumanization and psychological safety climate act as mediators in this relationship. These results support this novel approach to leadership in the military context. They also offer new ways to create better organizational environments. By treating their subordinates in a personalized manner and supporting them, security-providing leaders can improve employees' perceptions of psychological safety climate and combat feelings of organizational dehumanization, which, in turn, can reduce work stress.

Citation

Pablo Lobato, Juan A Moriano, Ana Laguía, Fernando Molero, Mario Mikulincer. Security providing leadership and work stress in Spanish Air Force. Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association. 2024 Sep 02;36(5):504-515

Mesh Tags

PMID: 37256575

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