A Multilevel Study of CEO Health-Orientation, Employee Well-Being, and Organizational Performance.

With the rising number of work-related mental illnesses, a growing stream of research has examined the role of leaders in promoting employees' psychological well-being in the workplace. While this literature has accumulated valuable insights, the key role of the executive suite in promoting healthy working conditions has been largely neglected thus far. To fill this void, we develop a multilevel theoretical model on how CEOs' health-oriented self-care (i.e., their awareness of, value for, and behavior toward their mental health) is associated with psychological well-being and performance in organizations. Building on social learning and conservation of resources theory, we propose that CEOs' self-care serves as a role model for leaders at lower organizational levels to show health-oriented staff-care toward their followers, thereby negatively relating to employee emotional exhaustion. Due to this indirect link with employee well-being, we suggest that CEO self-care is also positively and indirectly associated with organizational performance. Our assumptions are supported by a multi-industry, multi-source, and multi-level dataset of 96 German organizations. Our findings provide support for a "mutual gains" perspective, suggesting that a strong orientation toward psychological health in an organization's executive suite is positively associated with both, employee well-being and corporate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]