Leadership Style: Impact on Employee Quality of Life

Abstract
The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the impact leadership style and management experience levels has only employees. The writer’s interest in this topic stems from personal experience while employed at a community behavioral health agency. A discrepancy regarding the organization’s supportive methods of providing services to the community verses the non-supportive management style towards the staff surfaced, and indicated an increase in employee stress levels ultimately having a negative impact on the overall quality of work-life. The review yielded significant agreement amongst multiple researchers regarding the impact of leadership style on employees and that the type of leadership methods employed played a significant role on employee stress levels and quality of life. The review implies a need for further research in order to examine a wider-range of employment settings to include community behavioral health care employees.

Table of Contents
Page
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………5
Literature Review………………………………………………………………….……12
Overview of Leadership…………………………………………………….…...12
Non-supportive Leadership Style……………………………………..……...….12
Leadership and Employee Quality of Life……………………………..……...…13
Benefits of People-oriented Leadership…………………………………...……..14
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….……15
References…………………………………………………………………………….…25

Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits of a supportive leadership style (Bush, 2011, para. 2) in order to maintain a positive quality of work-life for employees with any type of organization. The writer’s interest in this topic stems from personal experiences with poor leadership over the course of a seven-year period that ultimately led to a decision to resign. As a professional in the behavioral health field, a discrepancy was found regarding a behavioral health center’s mission to provide people-oriented therapeutic services to the community verses the management style towards the staff. The agency’s mission statement clearly indicates a “dedication to improving the quality of life for county residents through a people-oriented comprehensive community-based approach to care that assists in reducing life stressors”, (“Clay Behavioral”, 2012, para. 1). However, a closer examination of upper-management leadership styles showed that management-to-staff relations have increased work-related stress and negatively affected employee performance and overall moral. A major area of concern is related to clinical staff productivity, which is measured by the number of clinical services provided which would in turn make the agency money. However, a conflict between clinical staff and upper management existed, as clinical staff felt they were held to a specific standard in order to meet minimal productivity levels without gaining adequate support or resources to effectively meet the requirements of the job description. A disconnect also appeared to have develop with upper managements’ conception of what it is like to be in the trenches due to lack of exposure to day-to-day clinical operations, and made decisions from a far removed focal point. While middle management sometimes behaved as a shield to department personnel, upper management continued to discount valuable input on procedural improvements, and barked orders for middle management to carry out, having an enormous impact on overall employee morale. Additionally, whenever changes or new policies were introduced, the CEO’s typical catch phrase sounded like, “If you don’t think you can do this, then I’m sure some else will”, I. Toto, (personal communication, May 2, 2012) creating increased frustration amongst the staff.
Another discrepancy within the organization’s leadership is its propensity for reactive thinking. Reactive thinking is crisis-based thinking, coming up with