Background. Occupational fatigue is a worldwide challenge that significantly impacts workers' well-being, physical health, organizational productivity, and safety concerns. Positive healthy organizations are addressed to advance employee health, safety, and organizational effectiveness. Human capital sustainability leadership style was recently proposed to significantly contribute to positive healthy organizations. It encloses four dimensions of leadership in a higher-order construct: ethical, sustainable, mindful, and servant. However, to our knowledge, studies have not yet investigated the links between occupational fatigue and human capital sustainability leadership.
Aims. The present research examined the relationships between personality traits, human capital sustainability leadership, and occupational fatigue.
Method. The Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), the Human Capital Sustainability Leadership Scale (HCSLS), and the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale (OFER) were administered to 301 Italian managers. Five mediation analyses using the bootstrap method were performed between each Big Five personality trait and occupational fatigue, with human capital sustainability leadership as mediator.
Results. Results showed a statistically significant mediating role of human capital sustainability leadership in the relationship between all the Big Five personality traits and occupational fatigue. The mediator effect size ranged from R2= 0.19 (p < 0.001; BFQ Openness to experience) to R2= 0.28 (p < 0.001; BFQ Agreeableness).
Conclusion. The results expand the knowledge regarding human capital sustainability leadership, suggesting that this leadership style, in addition to being an important reference for organizational prosperity and the flourishing of collaborators, could also support leaders in coping with occupational fatigue. Thus, it could have several nuances for the well-being of workers, leaders included, supporting positive healthy organizations and promoting healthy workers for healthy business.