A proposal that establishing a well-articulated organizational culture with engaging employees and effective leaders is essential to achieving and enhancing employee’s psychological health and workplace safety.

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This action guide explores different strategies that leaders in a public sector organization
could use to improve the psychological health and workplace safety of their employees.
Drawing from a wide field of research on organizational behavior and leadership, consultant
Nicola Chambers-Holder explores both company-wide policies and job specific methods that can
ultimately create productive employees. The major findings of this proposal show that
establishing a well-articulated organizational culture with engaging employees and effective
leaders is essential to achieving and enhancing employee’s psychological health and workplace
safety (Yukl, 2012).
Effective Leadership
The discussion about leadership and its role in organizations is decades old, and it
continues today. This discussion continues to ignite numerous research in the field, leaving
many questions unanswered, as new perspectives, theories, and definitions of leadership
continues to emerge. Leadership styles are important because organizations are always looking
for ways to increase productivity, and studies have shown that leadership styles play a critical
role in improving performance and productivity (Yukl, 2012). According to Yukl (2012),
leadership is a process where one or more persons influence a group of people to move in a
particular direction. The degree to which the individual exhibits leadership traits depend not
only on his/her skills and abilities to get people to follow, but also on their capacity to get others
to follow willingly and with enthusiasm (Yukl, 2012).
Types of Leadership
Organizations hire effective leaders who have the power and authority to influence their
employees to align their goals with that of the organizations (Arnold et al., 2015). Leaders have
different styles of influencing employees. Among the numerous leadership styles, the ones
below seem to be more popular among researchers and organizations. First, there is the laissez-
faire leadership style, which does not provide feedback or direction to subordinates. Secondly,

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the autocratic leadership who does not allow input from others and possesses total authority over
his/her subordinates (Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016). Thirdly, the transactional leadership,
which is a relationship based on exchanges of rewards or punishments depending on the
performance of the follower. There is the democratic leadership style that allows subordinates to
give their feedback and input, but the final decision is on the leader. The transactional leadership
style is a relationship based on exchanges of rewards or punishments depending on the
performance of the follower. Lastly, there is the transformational leadership style. This type of
leadership seems to be the most popular and sought after by organizations. The transformational
leader tries to transform the follower into something greater than what he or she was before
(Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016).
Employee Performance under Effective Leadership
Employee performance is the foundation of organizational success. How well employees
perform the activities expected by their employers depends on how compelling their leaders are
(Nixon, 2014)). This researcher found that employees under effective leadership usually achieve
organizational goals (Nixon, 2014). Employees, who perform under mediocre leadership, often
end with psychological issues such as stress, burnout, and depression (p.75). Organizations need
leaders who can inspire subordinates’ potential to enhance efficiency while meeting the
organization’s goals. Organizational efficiency is associated with the quality of work done by
their employees. As well and the ability of the leader to influence the employees into believing
that their values and goals and are aligned with that of the organization. Organizations will
continue to experience high absenteeism and turnover if their leaders cannot provide direction,
implement plans, and motivate employees to produce.
Impact of employee’s performance on behavior of leaders

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Researchers Quintana and Cabrera (2015) found that the way that leaders communicate
have a significant effect on employee’s performance, and, in turn, productivity. The study found
that the transactional leadership style, guide employee’s behavior by reinforcing rewards and
sanctions. However, leaders such as the transformational leadership unlock potential in others,
motivating them to perform beyond their interest (Kapp, 2012). Effective leadership influences
employee’s performance by increasing their efforts in contributing towards the organizational
goals. Great leaders understand that for their organizations to operate efficiently, they have to be
able to communicate effectively with organizational members. In addition, the way leaders
communicate information to make decisions, delegate responsibilities, and interact with their
employees significantly affected the way that employees perceived the entire organization
(Kapp, 2012).
Researchon the relationship of employee performance and effective leadership in
the workplace. Research has shown that employees perform better under effective leadership.
Effective leaders give employees feedback, suggestions, help them set goals, and inspire them to
be all they can be (Kapp, 2012). Employees feel valued under effective leadership. Because
effective leaders listen to employees and use their input, their relationship creates a more
efficient work method to improve productivity (Kapp, 2012). Findings from the study assert that
all organizations desire to increase profit and productivity. Therefore, to achieve this goal
efficiently, they need leaders who can motivate and inspire employees to produce. Employees’
performances improve under leadership who effectively allocate tasks and direct employees to
do their jobs and to go willingly beyond.
Gender, employee performance, and effective leadership. Numerous gender stereotypes
affect workers' perceptions of appropriate male and female leader’s behavior (Harteis et al.,
2015). Studies have shown that in the workforce, male leaders are expected to be assertive,
controlling, competitive, and should show no signs of weakness. In contrast, women leaders are

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expected to be sympathetic, concerning, and should demonstrate more empathy and flexibility.
These type of gender stereotypes and perceptions could have an adverse impact on leadership
roles, especially for female leaders. According to Harteis et al. (2015), this type of stereotype
becomes problematic when either gender demonstrates traits or characteristics that do not fit the
perception. This could result in followers’ negative perceptions. The findings from these studies,
assert that female leaders who adopted gender role, receive the most positive evaluations from
their employees. While those who demonstrate behaviors not associated with their gender were
not liked and valued. These findings suggest that the relationship between gender and leadership
roles could have positive or negative effects on employee performance (Wang et al., 2013).
Age, employee performance in Effective Leadership. Tilcsik (2014) argued that there is
a significant correlation between age, employee performance, and leadership. The author
conducted a study and found that employees' age and the way they support their leaders were
correlated. The older workers could identify more with senior leaders while younger employees
were more supportive of younger and more vibrant leaders. The findings also indicated that
younger employees who worked under young leaders experienced an advantage over older
employees. The study found that even though more senior employees had more extensive
experiences compared with the younger employee they did not experience any benefit, while
under the more senior leadership, they did ((Tilcsik, 2014).
Ethnicity, employee performance, and effective leadership. Employees spend 8 hours
out of the day, five days a week in the workplace. This time is spent communicating,
collaborating and planning with their own as well as other ethnic groups (Plaut et al., 2014).
Whether working with leaders or subordinates of different ethnic groups, everyone needs to be
trained on how to be sensitive to others, so the environment feels friendly, safe, and accepting.
People cannot control what their ethnicity is but they can control who and where they chose to
work. Therefore, when employees are treated equally in spite of their ethnic background, they

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will perform as expected or even go beyond. On the other hand, when people are dealt with in a
discriminatory fashion based on their ethnicity, the work environment could become hostile,
morale low, and they will not perform well. In most cases, when employees experience
discrimination based on their ethnicity, they will experience issues such as isolation, stress, and
high absenteeism (Plaut et al., 2014). Organizations have to see that employing diverse ethnic
groups is an asset to their organization as they bring a wide variety of new ideas and different
point of views. Effective organizational leaders integrate policies into their mission statement
and provide training programs that embrace employees with cultural diversity. Which will
promote awareness on how to communicate and approach diversity with cultural sensitivity.
The organizational structure, employee performance, and leadership. Without
effective leadership, employees performance will suffer and ultimately the organizations'
structure. An organization’s structure is how the people within the organization allocate activities
and tasks, and set goals to achieve the organization's mission (Carter et al., 2013). Leaders have
to be careful about the way they model the organization's missions, because, employees will
form perceptions of their behaviors and act accordingly. For example, if the organization's
mission is to practice integrity, yet the leaders are modeling unethical behaviors, then employees
will most likely not perform well or support their organization's mission. It is critical for the
organization to build a structure and culture promoting the psychological well-being of
employees. Small and large businesses should develop ways to enhance psychological well-
being, foster employee resilience, and improve mental health issues in the workplace. Life
happens, and employees need to know how to adapt and recover quickly from traumatic events
or other difficulties they may face.
Creating a respectful workplace, including fostering employee resilience and promote
knowledge of mental health issues in the workforce. According to Bardoel et al. (2014),

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resilience is not a trait, it is teaching employees how to think and behave a certain way in the
face of stress and tragedy (p.281). Some ways to foster employee resilience in the workplace is
to create a culture of open communication, support, acceptance, and non-judgement. Creating an
environment where employees feel safe enough to communicate openly with their superiors and
each other strengthens resilience (Bardoel et al., 2014). In addition, providing a supportive
environment helps employees to deal better with stressful events. Findings have shown that
employers benefit by helping employees build resilience to stress. When employees are
overwhelmed and stressed, it affects their mental well-being. The result is high absenteeism,
high turnover rate, and low productivity (Robertson et al., 2015). Therefore, it is beneficial to
the organization and its employees to promote ways to increase resilience and the knowledge of
mental health issues in the workforce. Stress and burnout could lead to a broad range of mental
illness, anywhere from mild anxiety to severe depression or even violence in the workplace
(Robertson et al., 2015).
The importance of training for employees and supervisors to create a culture of
psychological safety. Employees and supervisors should have training on psychological safety
in the workplace. This type of training is necessary for the organization and all employees since
it will increase awareness and establish a culture of psychological safety. Organizations should
promote an environment of trust where employees feel comfortable reaching out to someone as
well as providing services such as EAP, where they can contact a professional. In most cases,
mental illness could be a result from outside sources such as family life, personal issues, and
genetics. This cannot be avoided because employees bring the whole person into the workplace,
including their problems (Tilcsik, 2014). Therefore, organizations cannot afford to ignore these
type of challenges. Instead, they must recognize that a stressful work environment can
precipitate behavioral disorders in employees, and implement strategic preventative measures.
When employees are aware of triggers, and can manage their psychological wellness, they will

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be more productive. There should be training on cultural sensitivity, mental health, and ways to
alleviate stress and deal with trauma (Tilcsik, 2014). Training builds strong, knowledgeable
teams, encourages interpersonal relationships, prevents isolation, and teaches awareness about
the mental health issues and the resources available.
Strategies and resources to reduce the risk of psychological harm. Researchers May
et al. (2014), conducted a study of the different job-related injuries that employees suffer in the
workplace. Findings from the study suggested that employees suffer from different physical,
economic, emotional, and cognitive harm. Depending on the magnitude of these injuries, they
can have detrimental psychological effects on the employee, in turn, the organization. There are
four strategies and resources to reduce the risk of psychological harm. These include keeping
employees safe from workplace violence, promoting employee engagement, incorporating
mental health and safety elements into the job design, and identifying self-help tools and
resources for stress management.
Keep employees safe from workplace violence by recognizing the benefits of an early
alert system for workplace violence. Organizations are expected to abide by the Occupational
Safety and Health Standards (OSHA). However, conflicts are expected when working in an
environment with different people with different values, beliefs, and expectations (Fida et al.,
2015). In a matter of seconds, organizations can quickly find themselves in an untenable
dilemma where conflicts turn into violence. Violence in the workplace threatens the
psychological welfare and lives of its employees. Therefore, it is important to create a
workplace violence program where employees can recognize the early signs of workplace
violence and learn preventative measures (Fida et al., 2015). Supervisors could create a crisis
team, then conduct a vulnerability assessment, then train employees how to prevent violence.
The crisis team could see signs of inappropriate behaviors and hear threatening comments and
conversations from their peers that upper management might not be aware of (Kenny, 2010).

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Unfortunately, employees only report incidents when they escalate. Therefore, the crisis team
would be able to get a handle on issues that might seem unimportant at first, but with further
assessment, these small issues might give a picture of a more serious problem.
Promote employee engagement in a way that supports an organization’s mission and
ultimately improve productivity. Organizations benefit more when leaders can get employees to
align their personal values and goals with that of the organization (Carter et al., 2013). When
employees feel like they are a part of the organization's mission, they are more positive and will
willingly support and get other to support the company’s strategies, policies, and procedures
(Carter et al., 2013). In a research article by Janssens and Zanoni (2014), the researchers
examined the impact leadership styles on how goals are set to maximize employee productivity.
They found that leaders and managers who help employees to set clear objectives maximized
employee productivity. Leadership style has a significant effect on how employees set and
exceed goals (Janssens & Zanoni, 2014). Transformational leaders motivate employees to
success by setting specific goals, and give employees all the tools they need to reach those
objectives. This type of leadership style empowered employees to create their goals and help
them to make their decisions while guiding them towards fulfilling organizational goals (Nixon,
2014). Transformational leaders can overcome the difficult task of developing and maintaining
production goals and enforcing adherence to their organization mandates.
Incorporate psychological health and safety elements into the job design and employee
selection process. It is important to address the psychological demands, and psychological
safety, when planning and designing jobs. Kenny (2010) defined psychological safety as a
shared perception of organizational practices by employees. This is an excellent strategy for
reducing the risk of psychological harm. Protecting employees including their mental health and
security should have priority. There is a high rate of skilled workers suffering from illness or
injury due to the lack of a psychologically healthy workforce. Implementing mental health into

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job designs, and the selection process, will further the goals of the organization, and promote the
psychological health of the entire workforce. It will improve workers safety, and keep
employees engaged and productive (Kenny, 2010).
Determine how to identify counterproductive behaviors and how to conduct a risk
assessment. When employee’s behaviors and attitudes are not in alignment with that of their
organizations these types of actions are counterproductive and must be stopped. Effective
leaders understand how harmful counterproductive behaviors are to employees, the organization,
as well as to the services it provides (Fida et al., 2015). There should be clear guidelines on
acceptable behaviors, and consequences when violated. Subordinates do not only display
counterproductive behaviors, but it could also be between leadership and subordinates. For
example, leaders do in fact retaliate against their subordinate for reporting them or by showing
favoritism. Therefore, effective leaders should conduct risk assessments as a preventative
measure to identify any potential dangers, analyze the outcome if the hazard occurs, and then put
the appropriate system in place. The psychological harm and financial consequence of
workplace violence are too high not to have a system in place to reduce the risk of
counterproductive behaviors turning into workplace violence.
Self-help tools and resources for stress management. Effective leadership integrates
healthy ways to cope with stress, which helps to alleviate the harmful effect of stress. However,
when it comes to stress management, each person must find what works or does not work
because individuals are different and respond to challenges and stressful situations differently
(Fida et al., 2015). Employees should listen to their body, when they need to take a break, take a
break, go for a walk, knowing triggers will help prevent stress from getting out of control. Some
other tools involve managing time effectively, prioritizing tasks to get a better handle on meeting
deadlines. It is important to discuss conflicts instead of avoiding them. Exercise regularly, eat
healthy, sleep, socialize, and try to communicate openly and respectfully about things that might

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be bothersome and could build up and become stressful (Fida et al., 2015). Implementing these
self-help tools should help keep employees more focused and calm.
Conclusion
Numerous research has shown that employees who receive support and inspiration from
their leaders are more likely to experience work as more satisfying, and consequently, become
more engaged with the job tasks. Transformational leaders seem to be the most efficient at
producing this type of satisfaction in employees. Employees working under transformational
leaders tend to be more optimistic, believing they can achieve their goals. Transformational
leaders can use persuasion to convince employees that they are capable of more, boosting self-
efficacy, and beliefs about their capacities to be successful in a given task (Carter et al., 2013).
Effective leadership is essential for organizations to succeed. At the same time, findings and
leadership theories show that transformational leadership might be the most effective in meeting
this goal. Their leadership style enhances employees' work engagement, increases performance,
and ultimately productivity. The number one reason employees thrive in organizations is the
way they led or managed. Unfortunately, it is also the number one reason they quit (Bardoel et
al., 2014). Therefore, organizations should use effective leadership to produce greater
engagement and momentum for change. Effective leaders go beyond managing day-to-day
operations, focus on team building, create cultural awareness, and build an aesthetic around the
psychological health and safety of their employees.

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