Disseminating extra-role service behavior in the public sector: the effect of health-oriented leadership and work engagement

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Disseminating extra-role service behavior in the public sector: the effect of health-oriented leadership and work engagement

Gokhan Kerse

Kafkas University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kars, Turkiye

§efik Ozdemir

Aksaray University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aksaray, Turkiye

Mesut Soyalin

Siirt University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Siirt, Turkiye

ABSTRACT

This study focused on health-oriented leadership (HoL), attempting to determine whether this new type of leadership affects extra-role service behavior either directly or indirectly (through work engagement). Data were collected from public employees working in the service sector in a province in Turkey through the convenience sampling method. The study hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) using the SmartPLS software. The analysis findings have revealed that the perception of health-oriented leadership positively affects extra-role service behavior. Moreover, this effect was present not only directly, but also indirectly (through work engagement). The findings have also confirmed that health-oriented leadership is important in increasing public employees' engagement and extra-role service behaviors. Therefore, it was determined that health-oriented leadership brings positive outcomes in the public sector.

Keywords: health-oriented leadership, work engagement, extra-role service behavior, public sector

Introduction

The concept of health, which is considered important in both working and daily life, has become more relevant due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic adversely affected both social and business life, once again demonstrating and emphasizing the importance of health and well-being (Mishchuk et al., 2023). It also prompted organizations to redesign their physical environments, intensively implementing working styles such as working from home/remotely (Bencsik & Juhasz, 2023). One of the goals behind these changes in the way managers and leaders work was to help employees protect their health and encourage (2022) alsp claimed that the healthy communication that leaders established with their employees during the COVID-19 crisis helped to build their trust, and in this context, communication rates, when applied in a highly effective way, enabled them to more easily face traumatic events.

In addition to being a role model for healthy living, the fact that leaders can contribute to employee health by improving working conditions (Efimov et al., 2020; Winiarski et al., 2021) paved the way for the emergence of a new type of leadership called health-oriented leadership. Health-oriented leadership, which refers to behavioral models, activities and habits (general health-specific habits such as physical exercise and diet) related to the protection, improvement or restoration of the health of individuals in the organization (Klug et al., 2019), focuses on the components of leadership behaviors that can positively affect the work environment of employees (Jimenez et al., 2013). Health-oriented leadership, which is also defined as a series of significant leadership behaviors that can affect employee health (Gurt et al., 2011), assumes taking responsibility for employee health, communicating about health- related issues and setting an agenda for the improvement of workplace health (Jimenez et al., 2013) and focuses on leadership behaviors that positively affect the work environment of employees (Jimenez et al., 2017).

Health-oriented leaders try to benefit both the organization and the employees by creating a working environment in which employees can improve their health and promoting a healthy lifestyle through the above-mentioned behaviors. As a matter of fact, some studies in the literature have found that health-oriented leadership leads to positive results for both organizations and employees (Franke & Felfe, 2011; Santa Maria et al., 2019; Bregenzer et al., 2020) . But can health-oriented leadership also make a similar positive contribution to extra-role service behavior, which refers to a behavior that is not included in the job description but is for the benefit of the organization? In addition, can work engagement mediate this contribution?

Taking the above questions as a reference, this study is expected to contribute to the literature in a number of ways. The first is to contribute to the related field due to the lack of sufficient studies in the national and international literature on health-oriented leadership, which is a relatively new type of leadership. As a matter of fact, although it is relatively common in the international literature (Santa Maria et al., 2019; Kaluza et al., 2021; Arnold & Rigotti, 2021) , the fact that only one study was conducted in the national literature (Kerse et al., 2021) indicates a lack in the literature. Secondly, the sample in the study consists of public employees who have a key role in solving many crises and problems in terms of extra-role service behavior. Therefore, the findings of study on whether health-oriented leadership increases extra-role service behaviors in public employees are important. Thirdly, the mediating role of work engagement, which was found to be a mediating variable in the relationship between different leadership types and different variables (Park et al., 2014; Lai et al., 2020), in the effect of health-oriented leadership on extra-role service behaviour was examined for the first time in this study. To summarize, the present study makes a contribution to the literature by determining whether the perception of health-oriented leadership contributes to public employees carrying out beneficial work for their organizations in addition to their defined roles and responsibilities (extra-role service behavior) and whether this contribution is realized through work engagement.

1. Literature review

1.1 Health-oriented leadership (HoL)

extra role service public sector

Leadership is the process of influencing others and thus directing them toward goals (Knezevic, 2023). Health-oriented leadership (HoL), defined as a preventive approach to behavioral and organizational health, refers to the leader's attention to both his/her own physical and psychological health and the health of employees through communication and leadership behavior as a role model (Stuber et al., 2021). The HoL approach also focuses on designing leader communication and working conditions in a health-promoting manner and draws attention to the awareness and values of leaders towards follower health (Franke & Felfe, 2011). In this regard, HoL is defined as a special type of leadership that benefits employees by creating health-promoting working conditions (Jimenez et al., 2013).

The HoL can also be addressed in terms of health-specific communication (Gurt et al., 2011). Health-specific communication includes motivating employees to participate in health- promoting activities and adopt a healthy lifestyle, as well as talking directly with employees who appear stressed and finding solutions together (Franke et al., 2014). In this way, the tension in working conditions can be reduced and the potential for improving health can be realized (Arnold & Rigotti, 2020). Leaders with a health-oriented aspect can affect employee health by taking responsibility for their health, encouraging them to participate in activities that will improve their health (directly), and designing their working conditions in a way that will positively affect their health (indirectly) (Efimov et al., 2020; Bregenzer et al., 2020). This type of leadership includes a number of critical variables (workload, control, reward, equality, and values). When these variables are poorly managed, there may be some incompatibility between the employees and workplace conditions, which may cause negativities in terms of employee health. In this context, leaders can indirectly affect employee health by changing their working conditions (Efimov et al., 2020; Bregenzer et al., 2020).

The HoL consists of three components: health awareness, value of health, and health behavior (Franke & Felfe, 2011). Health behavior includes providing healthy working conditions (through climate and job design), encouraging employees to exhibit healthy working behavior (such as following safety rules, avoiding overtime and disturbances), and providing information on health (Franke et al., 2014). The value of health is related to the leader's concern for the health of employees and his/her sense of responsibility for their health (Arnold & Rigotti, 2020). Finally, health awareness refers to the ability of the leader to evaluate employee stress levels correctly and to be aware of the signs of stress among the employees (Franke et al., 2014; Franke & Felfe, 2011).

1.2 The relationship between health-oriented leadership and work engagement

Work engagement refers to a positive emotional and cognitive situation characterized by employees having a high level of energy and mental endurance while doing work, being willing to make an effort for their work, and exhibiting perseverance in the face of difficulties (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Kahn (1990), who introduced this concept to the literature, defined work engagement as an individual's physical, cognitive, and emotional commitment to their job. Accordingly, employees engaged to their work produce positive results at the individual and organizational level by making more effort in their jobs with high energy and enthusiasm (Kahn, 1990; Schaufeli et al., 2002; Schaufeli, 2012).

Work engagement is recognized as a concept that is negatively related to burnout and can be explained with it (Schaufeli, 2012). Therefore, the relationship between HoL and work engagement can be explained based on studies suggesting that work engagement can be seen as the positive antithesis of burnout (Maslach & Leiter, 1997; Schaufeli et al., 2002; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Schaufeli, 2012). Based on the findings obtained in previous studies that indicate that HoL negatively effects burnout (Kaluza & Junker, 2022; Horstmann, 2018; Santa Maria et al., 2019), HoL and work engagement can be suggested to have a positive relationship. As a matter of fact, Shin and Hur's (2021) findings that employees' perceptions of corporate policies and practices that support their physical and psychological health and the leader's awareness of employee health problems and concerns positively effect work engagement support this assumption.

The relationship between HoL and work engagement can also be explained by the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll, 2001). The COR theory begins with the principle of making efforts to obtain, retain, nurture and maintain resources that individuals value, and suggests that individuals can overcome the challenges they face in organizations if these resources are obtained and retained (Hobfoll et al., 2018). According to this theory, individuals need resources such as conditions, energy, personal characteristics and objects consisting of different factors to maintain their psychological and physical well-being (Kaluza & Junker (2022). When evaluated within the context of HoL, it can be stated that these resources are the conditions and factors that contribute to the followers' abilities to lead a physically and psychologically healthy life in the working environment (Kerse et al., 2021). Leaders who are health-oriented, on the one hand, ensure that regular breaks are provided to increase the well-being of their followers, and on the other hand, they carry out activities to eliminate conditions such as role conflict and job insecurity that may impair the well-being of followers (Franke et al., 2014). Based on the COR theory, Hobfoll (1989; 2001) suggested that individuals may be more resistant to stress and burnout if they obtain and retain the resources that they desire. Therefore, these health-oriented leadership behaviors and the resources obtained by employees can increase employees' engagement in work by enabling them to be resistant to stress and burnout while feeling more energetic (Hobfoll, 2001; Hobfoll et al., 2018). Based on all these theoretical assumptions and empirical findings, the following hypothesis can be developed: Hi. HoL positively effects work engagement.

1.3 The relationship between health-oriented leadership and extra-role service behavior

Extra-role behaviors are the willingness to exhibit behaviors for the benefit of the organization by going beyond the specified job descriptions (Van Dyne et al., 1995). On the other hand, extra-role service behaviors include voluntary and helpful behaviors that are not necessary for providing basic services but are beneficial to the organization, employees or other customers (Bove et al., 2009). Since organizational citizenship behaviors are typically among the extra-role behaviors that increase employees' organizational effectiveness (Bove et al., 2009), the relationship between HoL and extra-role service behavior can be explained through organizational citizenship behavior. Previous empirical studies show that many types of leadership are important drivers of extra-role behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. For example, some researchers (Kerse, 2021; Srivastava & Dhar, 2019; Gill & Mathur, 2007; Aboramadan et al., 2022) have found that ethical leadership, authentic leadership, transformational leadership and servant leadership positively effect extra-role behaviors. In addition, findings in the literature indicate that some leadership styles positively effect organizational citizenship behavior, which is a type of extra-role behavior (Babcock-Roberson & Strickland, 2010; Mo & Shi, 2017; Purwanto et al., 2021). Although there are no studies on the relationship between HoL and extra-role service behavior, based on these empirical findings that examine the relationship between other leadership styles and extra-role behaviors, it can be expected that HoL effects extra-role service behavior. Therefore, the following hypothesis can be developed: H2. HoL directly positively effects extra-role service behavior.

1.4 The relationship between work engagement and extra-role service behavior

Work engagement affects organizational outcomes as well as employees' dedication, concentration and energy in their work. Employees who are engaged to their work are more willing to exhibit behaviors towards “making extra progress” for their organization such as taking individual initiative, exhibiting less absenteeism, learning more, becoming an important part of their organization and going beyond what is expected of them (Schaufeli, 2012). Therefore, it can be argued that if employees are immersed in their work and devote themselves to it (presence of work engagement), they are more likely to engage in extra-role behaviors. As a matter of fact, several studies in the literature show that work engagement positively effects extra-role performance and extra-role behavior (Shokory & Suradi, 2018; Demerouti et al., 2015). In another study, Orlowski et al. (2021) suggested that work engagement increases extra¬role customer service behaviors. In addition to these studies, studies indicating that work engagement positively effects organizational citizenship behavior, which is an extra-role behavior (Kataria et al., 2013; Findikli, 2015), reinforce the possibility that work engagement positively affects extra-role service behavior. Based on this empirical framework, we propose the following hypothesis:

H3. Work engagement positively effects extra-role service behavior.

1.5 Work engagement as a mediating variable

There is much evidence in the literature suggesting that work engagement is an important mediator between various precursors and positive work outcomes (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Park et al., 2014; Karatepe, 2015). The studies on some leadership styles, which are among the precursors, have also proved that engagement mediates other organizational outcomes (Chan, 2019; Babcock-Roberson & Strickland, 2010; Lai et al., 2020). In addition to these empirical findings, considering the COR theory, it can be argued that work engagement can potentially mediate the positive relationship between HoL and extra-role service behavior. That is to say; it can be claimed that health-oriented leaders increase employee work engagement, especially because they provide employees with accessible resources for their health, therefore leading employees who are engaged to their work to engage in behaviors that may be beneficial to the organization apart from their defined tasks. Thus, the following mediation hypothesis can be developed: H4. Work engagement has a mediating role in HoL's effect on extra-role service behavior.

The following research model was established for the hypotheses developed in the research:

Figure 1. The research model

2. Methodological approach

2.1 Participants and procedures

Data were collected from public employees working in the service sector in a province in Turkey. Data were obtained through surveys using the convenience sampling method. The surveys were shared virtually (e-mail and Whatsapp) due to the pandemic. The number of employees in the public institution is approximately 550. According to statistical calculations, the sample size should be at least 226 (https://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm). Questionnaires were sent to 308 people and the response rate was approximately 83 percent. Public employees were asked to participate in the survey on a voluntary basis. In the end, 256 participants working in different public institutions responded. Of the participants, the majority were male (68.8%) and married (72.7%), worked for 9 years or more (40.6%), and had an associate/undergraduate level of education (93.7%).

There are several reasons for selecting public employees for the research sample. The first one is that today's public sector includes the use of digital capabilities unlike traditional business environments (Bilan et al., 2023). In this sector, managers' leadership of their employees involves a different set of challenges than in traditional business environments (Napolitano, 2016) and is considered important for public sector innovation (Sazzad et al., 2021). Data were obtained from the public sector since this study discusses the variable of health-oriented leadership, which is a contemporary type of leadership. Secondly, work engagement, which is another variable used in the research, is an important variable for the public sector as it ensures the formation and continuation of public service motivation (Bakker, 2015) and in the absence of work engagement, billions of dollars of productivity losses occur every year (Napolitano, 2016).

2.2 Measures

The scales used in the research were selected from scales with previously proven reliability and validity. A 5-point Likert type (1: Strongly Disagree - 5: Strongly Agree) response was requested for each scale item. The scale developed by Franke et al. (2014) and Pundt and Felfe (2017) and adapted by Kerse et al. (2021) was used to measure the HoL perception of the participants. In the research, the positive health behavior dimension in this scale (HoL StaffCare (followers)) was taken into consideration and employee perceptions were determined with 10 items. The health-oriented leadership variable was abbreviated as "HoL" in the analyses. Participant work engagement levels were measured using the 3-item one¬dimensional scale developed by Schaufeli et al. (2006) before being reduced and proven to be valid and reliable by Guler et al. (2019). The work engagement variable was abbreviated as "WE" in the analyses. Extra-role service behavior of the participants were measured using the 5-item one-dimensional scale developed by Bettencourt and Brown (1997). The variable of the extra-role service behavior was abbreviated as "ERSB" in the analyses.

3. Conducting research and results

3.1 Findings on scale reliability and validity

A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out using the SmartPLS software to examine the reliability and validity criteria for the scales in the research model. In this direction, firstly, internal consistency reliability was examined (Table 1). The Cronbach's Alpha (ERSB= 0.944; HoL = 0.961; WE= 0.898), rho_A (ERSB= 0.947; HoL = 0.965; WE= 0.900) and CR (Composite Reliability) (ERSB= 0.945; HoL = 0.961; WE = 0.899) values of the scales were determined to be greater than 0.70 (Hair et al., 2017), thus reliability was ensured.

Convergent validity and discriminant validity analyses were performed to ensure scale validity. Since the factor loads of the items in the scales were higher than 0.40 and the scale AVE (Average Variance Extracted) values were higher than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2017), it was seen that there was convergent validity (Table 1).

3.2 Testing the hypotheses

The research model and hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (see Figure 1). It is stated in the literature that the VIF value should be lower than 5 (Hair et al., 2017). No multicollinearity problems were found since the VIF values in our study were lower than this reference value (Table 3). Additionally, effect size and predictive power values were also calculated. These values, which meet the necessary criteria, are presented in Table 3. Finally, the SRMR value for the research model was found to be 0.042, supporting model fit due to the value being lower than 0.07 (Bagozzi & Yi, 2012).

Table 1. Findings on internal consistency reliability and convergent validity

Table 2. Means, standard deviations, correlations, and discriminant validity results Fornell-Larcker Criterion HTMT

Source: own calculation

Table 3. The research model results