Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sherman, Gary D
• Lee, Jooa J
• Cuddy, Amy J. C
• Renshon, Jonathan
• Oveis, Christopher
• Gross, James J
• Lerner, Jennifer S

Titel

Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2012-10, Vol.109 (44), p.17903-17907

Ort / Verlag

United States: National Academy of Sciences

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• As leaders ascend to more powerful positions in their groups, they face ever-increasing demands. As a result, there is a common perception that leaders have higher stress levels than nonleaders. However, if leaders also experience a heightened sense of control—a psychological factor known to have powerful stress-buffering effects—leadership should be associated with reduced stress levels. Using unique samples of real leaders, including military officers and government officials, we found that, compared with nonleaders, leaders had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower reports of anxiety (study 1). In study 2, leaders holding more powerful positions exhibited lower cortisol levels and less anxiety than leaders holding less powerful positions, a relationship explained significantly by their greater sense of control. Altogether, these findings reveal a clear relationship between leadership and stress, with leadership level being inversely related to stress.