Drivers or Drifters? The “Who” and “Why” of Leader Role Occupancy : A Mixed-Method Study
Auvinen, E., Huhtala, M., Rantanen, J., & Feldt, T. (2021). Drivers or Drifters? The “Who” and “Why” of Leader Role Occupancy : A Mixed-Method Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 573924. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.573924
Published in
Frontiers in PsychologyDate
2021Copyright
© 2021 the Authors
This study investigated the reasons that leaders have given for their leader role occupancy. By using a mixed-method approach and large leader data, we aimed to provide a more nuanced picture of how leader positions are occupied in real life. We examined how individual leadership motivation may associate with other reasons for leader role occupancy. In addition, we aimed to integrate the different reasons behind leader role occupancy into the framework of sustainable leader careers and its two indicators: leader’s health (occupational well-being) and performance (measured indirectly as followers’ occupational well-being). The survey data consisted of 1,031 leaders from various sectors of working life. Qualitative analysis revealed that leaders mention various factors behind their leader role occupancy, resulting 26 themes. After inductive investigation of the data, theory-driven analysis focused on the sustainable career components (person, context, time) and agency vs. non-agency. Qualitative data was quantitized based on the theory-driven categories for statistical analysis. Based on the these analysis, we found out that only Affective-Identity MTL predicted all of the studied reasons behind leader role occupancy, whereas the other motivation types (Non-calculative MTL and Social-Normative MTL) did not. All of the reasons for leader role occupancy except non-agentic ones were related to both leaders’ own and their followers’ occupational well-being. Leaders with more person-related and agentic reasons for leader role occupancy experienced better occupational well-being. Person- and context-related and agentic reasons behind leader role occupancy associated also with followers’ occupational well-being, but the associations differed from those of leaders’ well-being: person-related and agentic reasons associated with followers’ exhaustion, but this association was not found among leaders. Our study provided important information for practitioners in the field of human resources and development, as it has shown that if the reasons for leader role occupancy mainly reflect circumstances or other non-person-related reasons, the experienced occupational well-being and person-career fit may remain weak. It is necessary to try to support the leadership motivation for those leaders, or to shape the job description in such a way that it can also offer the experiences of meaningfulness from aspects other than self-realization through a managerial role.
...


Publisher
Frontiers Media SAISSN Search the Publication Forum
1664-1078Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/51814753
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Related funder(s)
Finnish Work Environment FundFunding program(s)
OthersAdditional information about funding
The study was part of two research projects funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund (project numbers 116163 and 200320, project leader TF).License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
Leader motivation as a building block for sustainable leader careers : the relationship between leadership motivation profiles and leader and follower outcomes
Auvinen, Elina; Huhtala, Mari; Kinnunen, Ulla; Tsupari, Heidi; Feldt, Taru (Elsevier, 2020)This study investigates leaders' motivation to lead (MTL) as a personal resource for building a sustainable career as a leader. Using a person-centered methodology, we identified different latent profiles of leadership ... -
Keskisuuren kaupungin johtajien näkemyksiä työhyvinvoinnistaan
Hovinen, Jenna (2020)Kunnat ja kuntayhtymät ovat nykyään yhä suurempia työnantajia Suomessa. Julkisella alalla on entistä enemmän alettu kiinnittää huomiota henkilöstön hyvinvointiin läpi työuran. Kunta-alalla työssä selkeä ongelma työhyvinvointiin ... -
Johtotehtäviin liittyvien huolenaiheiden yhteys urasuunnitelmiin ja henkilökohtaisiin työtavoitteisiin vaativaa asiantuntijatyötä tekevillä
Kilponen, Kiia; Takkunen, Anna (2018)Tavoitteenamme oli tutkia, ovatko johtotehtäviin liittyvät huolenaiheet yhteydessä johtotehtäviin hakeutumiseen liittyviin urasuunnitelmiin ja henkilökohtaisiin työtavoitteisiin niillä vaativaa asiantuntijatyötä tekevillä, ... -
Urheiluakatemiavalmentajien työhyvinvointipääomaa rakentavat voimavaratekijät
Savukoski, Marika (2021)Nykyisen hallitusohjelman yhtenä tavoitteena on nostaa työhyvinvointi maailman parhaaksi vuoteen 2030 mennessä. Eri ammattilaisten työhyvinvointia on siten tärkeää tutkia ja etsiä keinoja vaikuttaa positiivisesti työhyvinvoinnin ... -
Meaningful Work Protects Teachers’ Self-Rated Health under Stressors
Minkkinen, Jaana; Auvinen, Elina; Mauno, Saija (Journal of Positive School Psychology, 2020)A sense of meaningfulness is one of the most sought?after work characteristics which has been associated with employees’ well-being. This study explored whether meaningful work enhances self-rated health in challenging ...