THE MEDIATING ROLE OF LEADER COPING BEHAVIORS: LINKING SELF-AWARENESS, EMOTIONAL REGULATION, AND RESILIENCE TO EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING

Abstract

Background: In volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) organizational environments, employee well-being has emerged as a strategic imperative linked to organizational resilience and sustainable performance. While leader self-awareness, emotional regulation, and resilience are recognized as critical psychological capacities, the behavioral mechanisms through which these traits influence employee outcomes remain underexplored.

Objective: This study examines the mediating role of leader coping behaviors (active coping, planning, and acceptance) in the relationship between leader psychological traits (self-awareness, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and resilience) and employee well-being.

Methods: A multi-source survey design was employed with 247 matched leader-subordinate dyads across knowledge-intensive and service sectors. Leaders completed assessments of self-awareness (SRIS-Insight), emotional regulation (ERQ), resilience (CD-RISC-10), and coping behaviors (Brief COPE). Employees independently rated their well-being (WHO-5). Hierarchical multiple regression and mediation analyses using the PROCESS macro (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrap samples tested the hypothesized relationships.

Results: All three hypotheses were supported. Leader self-awareness, cognitive reappraisal, and resilience significantly predicted adaptive coping strategies, collectively explaining 49.2% of variance in active coping, 45.8% in planning, and 38.4% in acceptance (H1). These traits also directly predicted employee well-being, with the full model explaining 54.8% of variance (H2). Mediation analyses confirmed that coping behaviors significantly mediated the relationships between leader traits and employee well-being, with all indirect effects showing confidence intervals excluding zero (H3). Cognitive reappraisal emerged as the strongest predictor of problem-focused coping, while resilience most strongly predicted acceptance.

Conclusions: Leader psychological traits enhance employee well-being primarily through observable coping behaviors rather than direct trait-to-outcome effects. Cognitive reappraisal, resilience, and self-awareness operate through the behavioral mechanisms of active coping, planning, and acceptance, creating a psychological climate that supports employee well-being. These findings provide evidence-based guidance for leadership development interventions, suggesting that training programs should target both psychological capacities and specific, teachable coping strategies.