Engaging Leadership and Psychological Safety as Moderators of the Relationship between Strain and Work Recovery: A Cross-Sectional Study of HSS Employees

Work in the health and social sector (HSS) is highly straining and therefore recovery from work needs to be promoted. Less is known on how job resources can be used to alleviate job strain and increase recovery from work. Thus, we analyzed the following: the association between job demands and work recovery; the connections of engaging leadership and psychological safety to recovery from work; and the moderating effects of engaging leadership and psychological safety on the relationship between strain and recovery from work. This cross-sectional study of 18,155 HSS and 4347 eldercare employees in 2020 using linear regression analysis showed that job strain (p < 0.001) and moral distress (p < 0.001) were associated with decreased recovery from work. Engaging leadership (p < 0.001) and psychologically safe work community (p < 0.001) enhanced recovery from work independently. Engaging leadership mitigated the harmful effect of job strain (p < 0.01) and moral distress (p < 0.05), and psychological safety mitigated the effect of job strain (p < 0.001), but not moral distress (p > 0.05). Thus, it is important to reduce job strain so that employees recover from work. Further job resources such as engaging leadership and psychological safety are important in themselves as they support recovery from work and employees’ well-being, but also as they alleviate job demands.