Mitigating Burnout and Stress through Transformational Leadership - Article Example

Occupational health issues have been at the heart of recent reviews with job stress (JS) and burn out emerging as the most serious problems in industrialized countries and as noted by health care workers according to Gill, Flashner & Schacher (nd). These issues result in high numbers of both physical and mental health conditions which in turn negatively affect employee performance and commitment. Data collected in the United States in 1998 showed high employee mortality rates rose from stress-related problems (Gill et al. (nd)). It is therefore vital to seek avenues that reduce these problems the best of which is transformational leadership (TL) as opposed to transactional leadership. TL is defined as performance and leadership beyond expectations. Studies have shown that the application of TL leads to efficiency and reduction of job stress among employees. A study, by use of questionnaires, was carried out on customer care service employees (CCSEs) to determine the relationship between TS, burnout and JS (Job Stress). The questionnaire, which covered questions on measurements, TL, JS and Job burnout, were distributed to sampled hotels, restaurants and pubs in the lower Mainland of Canada. Pubs were eliminated from the survey owing to few accepting to be studied leaving a sample size of 33.8% and 66.2% for hotel and restaurant CCSEs respectively (Gill et al. (nd)). The responses were analyzed statistically and different hypotheses tested against the responses resulting in varying relationships between the different types of leadership, JS and burn out. The results showed that JS was directly proportional to burnout and inversely proportional to TL. This as a matter of fact showed that TL approaches and methods are beneficial to organizations. Application of this Study for Effective Leadership The article states that both transformational and transactional leadership styles have advantages though it pointed out that TL produced better results on employees and lessened stress levels. To be an effective leader therefore I would adopt the TL style. The article shows how TL reduces JS and burnout in CCSEs. CCSEs are subjected to different types of work environments which expose them to higher levels of stress compared to workers in most other fields. If TL produced positive results on these employees, then it would most likely work on employees of any other industry. Effective leadership has more to do with being a leader than a being a manager. Stress at the work place is common and could easily results to medical conditions that can be very costly (Gill et al. (nd)). A good leader therefore should have qualities and long time goals that help reduce burnout and stress levels among the employees. In order to apply the TL style the leader must posses all the four elements that every transformational leader should have. These are individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and idealized influence. A leader with individualized consideration has a high level of attendance to each employee’s needs, acts as a coach or mentor and listens and understands each employee’s needs and concerns. This kind of leader empathizes, supports and places challenges before the employees. In addition, the leader keeps communication channels open with his juniors at the workplace. Having individualized consideration means respecting and celebrating each individual’s contribution to the organization. This effectively leads employees to develop aspirations and the will for self development and hence higher motivation at the workplace (Gill et al. (nd)). The other element of transformational leadership is intellectual stimulation which is the extent to which leaders challenge assumptions, and solicit and take risks on the employees’ ideas. Transformational leaders encourage and stimulate creativity in their employees, and nature and develop them to think independently, value learning and treat unforeseen situations as opportunities from which they can learn from (Gill et al. (nd)). They encourage interactions between employees with a view of making the employees think deeply and improve the way they execute their tasks. A transformational leader must also be an inspirational motivator. This involves articulating the vision of the organization by challenging the workers with high standards, communicating future goals with optimism and providing meaning for the challenges at hand. Employees need to possess a sturdy sense of purpose in order to be motivated to take positive actions. Meaning and purpose provide the energy to drive a group forward. Visionary aspects of leadership are boosted by good communication skills which make them powerful and precise (Gill et al. (nd)). Employees tend to invest more effort in their jobs, have strong belief about their abilities, and are optimistic about their future when they are encouraged. Yet again, transformational leaders have idealized influence and hence provide vision, instill a sense of mission and pride, and trust and respect their employees. Application of these characteristics makes a leader to be effective and by extension helps to improve the work place while simultaneously reducing job stress and burnout. Transformational leadership therefore contributes a lot in saving money that would have been used to treat medical conditions that could arise from burnout and job stress. Conclusion Burnout has been associated with, among other things, lack of open communication and low commitments to work by employees which results in employees being in a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. These can be reduced through the application of transformational leadership. When a worker is exposed to a work environment that he/she feels may be threatening to him/her, he or she is likely to develop job stress. Job stress can negatively affect the quality of work, personal health, effectiveness and the productivity of workers. These can be very costly to both the organization and the individual. This, therefore, calls for a strategy that can help check the stress levels at the workplace such as transformational leadership (Savery and Luks, 2001). A transformational leader looks for long time solutions to the daily challenges faced by employees in their day to day duties and thinks ahead so as to be better prepared to tackle future challenges. Unexpected challenges occurring at the workplace can cause a lot of pressure and lead to burnout and job stress. Transformational leaders encourage employees to think and use such challenges as lessons to learn from. This definitely reduces panic at workplaces and better positions the workers to deal with any problems that may come their way. These and many more work situations are addressed by transformational leadership. Reference Gill A., Flashner A. & Schacher M. (n.d) Mitigating Stress and Burnout by implementing transformational leadership, Touro University International, California, Cypress. Savery, L.K. and Luks, J.A. (2001), The relationship between empowerment, job satisfaction, and reported stress levels: Some Australian evidence, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22(3), 97-105 Read More