WORK STRESS, LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH

The aim of this article is to analyze the role of leadership for promoting work and organizational well-being and health at individual and collective (work unit, company) levels, giving special attention to psychosocial factors, e.g. work stress. We will comment on research carried on at the Work and Organizational Psychology Unit in the University of Valencia (www.uv.es/uipot). We will present additional studies when needed. The second section of the article will be centred on recent tendencies on work stress conceptualization as well as recent theoretical models. The analysis will show new perspectives for promoting stress prevention at work. In the third section, the multiple roles of individual leadership on stress will be revised. The fourth section will be centred on the role of leadership on stress from a multi-and-cross level approach. The fifth section will briefly analyze shared leadership and its implications for work stress. Final section considers implications of available empirical evidence and knowledge for assessing leadership and intervention in the context of analysis and prevention of psychosocial risks in organizations.