Managing Stress and Enhancing Employee Wellness and Performance in Times of Crisis

Abstract

Employee stress has been explored extensively. However, there remain a dearth of scholarship on how leadership, specifically authentic leadership, helps to reduce employee stress levels in crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in emerging economies, and to ensure employee wellness and performance using the social exchange theory. Using exploratory qualitative design and thematic analysis, data from 32 interviews with public sector employees in Ghana were analysed. Findings demonstrate that authentic leaders exhibit such characteristics as honesty, accountability, self-regulation, relational transparency, objective analysis of information, and valuing followers' contributions to arrive at decisions. These characteristics relate positively to employee job performance, wellness, and stress management.