The impact of leadership on perceived work-related stress in healthcare facilities organisations

Purpose – Employees in the private, public, and third sectors have experienced an increase in stress over theyears. Amongst the sectors, people working in hospitals and other healthcare facilities were put under severestress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the World Health Organisation has clearly stated that defendingpeople’s mental health at this particular time of restless pandemic growth is an absolute necessity. The purposeof this article is to assess the perceived work-related stress (WRS) of healthcare workers (HCWs) as a result ofthe spread of COVID-19, as well as how a leadership role can help to reduce WRS.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a multiple case study approach applied to two Italian healthcarefacilities, the questionnaire results were subjected to a regression analysis.Findings – The results show an association in HCWs between the perception of supportive leadership and theperception of negative psychosocial risks whose exposure can lead to manifestation of WRS during COVID-19pandemic.Originality/value – The study addresses the role that the perception of supportive leadership can play inreducing exposure to occupational psychosocial risks in a sample of healthcare professionals.Keywords Work-related stress, Leadership support, Organisational change, COVID-19, Healthcare facilities,Multiple case studyPaper type Research paper