How does Laissez-Faire Leadership Affect the Psychosocial Work Environment in the Norwegian Armed Forces – The Moderating Role of Gender

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore a universal perspective that laissez-faire leadership has a negative impact on psychosocial factors at work, including role conflict, stress and motivation. Further, the study aimed to see whether there are differences to how men and women are affected by this form of destructive leadership style. We developed hypotheses proposing that women to a greater extent than men will be affected by this type of leadership, implying that women will react more negatively to a laissez-faire leader. A cross-sectional survey among 9446 employees from the Norwegian Armed Forces showed that laissezfaire leadership positively predicted role conflict and stress, while it negatively predicted motivation. Despite the low effect size of the interaction terms, the moderation in the study revealed that gender moderated the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role conflict, and also between laissez-faire leadership and stress. However, contrary to our predictions, men were seen to be more negatively affected by laissez-faire leadership than women. Limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications were discussed.