Health promotion in virtual teamwork through health-oriented leadership

Background Virtual teamwork as a new way of working is characterized by specific challenges and associated job demands. Leadership influence on the health of employees has already been proven in direct and personal team constellations. Objectives The goal of this article is to provide an overview of healthy leadership concepts and illustrate them in a virtual working environment. Materials and methods In an explorative literature review, currently available findings on healthy leadership concepts are evaluated and summarized. Based on this, a suitable approach to healthy leadership is identified and the empirical state of research in virtual teamwork is presented. Results Our review identified health-oriented leadership as the dominant approach among all theoretical concepts of healthy leadership. The central results of previous studies show that health-oriented leadership can have a significantly positive influence on the health of employees. Overall, leadership represents a relevant health factor for workplace health promotion. Conclusions The empirical state of research shows that there is still much need for research on health-oriented leadership in virtual teamwork. The relevance of further empirical studies for virtual work environments is discussed for science and practice.