The effects of leader microbreaks on transformational leadership behavior and follower job satisfaction: LMX as a cross-level moderator

Abstract

Microbreaks have been receiving growing scholarly attention as an effective energy management strategy at work. As previous research has mostly examined microbreaks to show their within-person benefits for individuals’ well-being and task performance, this study turns to interpersonal effects of microbreaks and their boundary conditions. Integrating Affective Events Theory and the Emotion As Social Information model, the study tests the crossover effects of leaders’ microbreaks to explain how microbreaks influence not only actors themselves but also their follower. An experience sampling method was used to collect three daily surveys from 118 leader-member dyads (236 full-time employees) for five workdays (n = 511 day-level observations). Multilevel path analysis results found that on days when leaders take more morning microbreaks at work, they have higher levels of state positive affect in the afternoon, which in turn is linked to greater transformational leadership behavior (reported by follower) as well as the follower’s own job satisfaction in the afternoon. Overall, the findings suggest that leaders’ microbreaks can be positive affective events for both leader and follower. Importantly, leader-member exchange (LMX) moderated (strengthened) the indirect effects of leader microbreaks on the two dependent variables via the leader’s increased positive affect. The indirect effects of leader microbreaks on transformational leadership behavior and follower job satisfaction via the leader’s positive affect, were much stronger for employees in high LMX than employees in low LMX. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.