The role of female managers in enhancing employee well-being: A path through workplace resources

The role of female managers in enhancing employee well-being: A path through workplace resources | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The role of female managers in enhancing employee well-being: A path through workplace resources Jun Xie, Xiangdan Piao, Shunsuke Managi This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2261556/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Following the job demands-resources theory, this study explores how female managers affect employee well-being through multiple levels of workplace resources, including task, group, and worksite levels. The test is based on a large-scale job stress survey of around 96,000 employee-year observations from 2017 to 2019. The structural equational model is applied to construct the latent variables of workplace resources at each level and test the mediating effects. The findings give supporting evidence for the transformational leadership behaviors of female managers. The female presence at the management level is associated with better workplace resources and employee well-being, especially workplace cohesiveness, work engagement, and occupational stress. Workplace resources significantly mediate these relationships, which shed light on the underlying mechanisms. Notably, the positive indirect effects via workplace resources could offset the negative direct effects of female managers. Female middle managers present more substantial impacts than top managers, providing further implications for gender diversity issues in management teams. Biological sciences/Psychology Health sciences/Health care Health sciences/Health occupations Employee well-being Job-demands resources Transformational leadership Middle managers Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Appendixforreview.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2261556","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":154780650,"identity":"a1246823-0786-440f-84b7-e85d3b55dce2","order_by":0,"name":"Jun Xie","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Kyushu University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jun","middleName":"","lastName":"Xie","suffix":""},{"id":154780651,"identity":"5f958e92-91aa-4040-84b8-913cecb3db56","order_by":1,"name":"Xiangdan Piao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Iwate University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiangdan","middleName":"","lastName":"Piao","suffix":""},{"id":154780653,"identity":"dc29e397-87dc-4c4e-b3f5-330d97f7d809","order_by":2,"name":"Shunsuke Managi","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABBUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYNACAxvGBgYGZhAzASbGTEBLGslaGA5jasEJdNvPHvz4peC8bD/7AWZj3ra6PIMDPAYMP2oY2M1xaDE7k5csLWNw23hmTwJzMm/b4WKQFsaeYwzMlg04tBzIMZCWMLiduOEGA/Nh3rYDiRvuvzFg4G1gYDY4gEPL+TfGvyUMzsG01CVuANnyF5+WGzlmkh8MDoC1AB3GDNbCjNeWG2/MrBkMkoF+SWw2nHPucOLMA2wFh2WOSeD2y/kc45s//tgBQ+zwYYk3ZXWJfQeYNz58U2OTjCvEQICZB0wxNjDxQEWATpJINsCjhfEHOgME7PBpGQWjYBSMghEFAHHSWxba8e/xAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Kyushu University","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shunsuke","middleName":"","lastName":"Managi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-11-11 04:59:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2261556/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2261556/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":36726306,"identity":"ad04900d-8202-42de-9e4c-fed7cbff529e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-05-09 04:14:32","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":522432,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscriptwithtitlepagerev.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2261556/v1_covered_8c693af9-859d-4a50-a3bb-601ad82fbb51.pdf"},{"id":29671164,"identity":"e1dd0df4-15c6-4ae5-8d61-9ad9730d3e99","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-29 17:24:33","extension":"docx","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":25888,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Appendixforreview.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2261556/v1/04d35700d96e522c209d34cd.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The role of female managers in enhancing employee well-being: A path through workplace resources","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Employee well-being, Job-demands resources, Transformational leadership, Middle managers ","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2261556/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2261556/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing the job demands-resources theory, this study explores how female managers affect employee well-being through multiple levels of workplace resources, including task, group, and worksite levels. 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