Perspective of Supervision
ORIGINAL PAPER
Transformational Leadership Moderates the Relationship Between Emotional Exhaustion and Turnover Intention Among Community Mental Health Providers
Amy E. Green • Elizabeth A. Miller •
Gregory A. Aarons
Received: 2 June 2011 / Accepted: 17 October 2011 / Published online: 4 November 2011
� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Public sector mental health care providers are
at high risk for burnout and emotional exhaustion which
negatively affect job performance and client satisfaction
with services. Few studies have examined ways to reduce
these associations, but transformational leadership may
have a positive effect. We examine the relationships
between transformational leadership, emotional exhaus-
tion, and turnover intention in a sample of 388 community
mental health providers. Emotional exhaustion was posi-
tively related to turnover intention, and transformational
leadership was negatively related to both emotional
exhaustion and turnover intention. Transformational lead-
ership moderated the relationship between emotional
exhaustion and turnover intention, indicating that having a
transformational leader may buffer the effects of providers’
emotional exhaustion on turnover intention. Investing in
transformational leadership development for supervisors
could reduce emotional exhaustion and turnover among
public sector mental health providers.
Keywords Emotional exhaustion � Burnout � Turnover � Leadership � Mental health services
A common concern for human service organizations is
burnout caused by the high stress nature of providing ser-
vices to others. Burnout is a stress-related psychological
syndrome comprised of three components, emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplish-
ment (Maslach and Jackson, 1981). Public sector mental
health care providers are at high risk for burnout because
these positions typically have high demands, low resources,
and little reward (van Daalen et al. 2009). In the United
States, recent funding constraints have led many agencies to
increase productivity and billing requirements, thus adding
more stress to already overburdened workers (Morse et al.
2011). The emotional demands of mental health positions
are especially high (van Daalen et al. 2009), and are closely
tied to burnout. Of the three components of burnout, emo-
tional exhaustion, or the extent to which an employee lacks
sufficient emotional resources to handle interpersonal
stressors, is theorized to best capture the ‘‘core meaning’’ of
burnout (Cropanzano et al. 2003; Shirom 1989).
Studies of burnout among mental health workers have
found consistently high rates of emotional exhaustion
(Paris and Hoge 2010) with negative consequences at both
the employee and organization levels. Individual employ-
ees with higher burnout are more likely to experience
poorer health (e.g., illness, depression, fatigue) and strained
personal relationships (Knudsen et al. 2006; Morse et al.
2011; Salyers et al. 2011). At the organizational level,
emotional exhaustion and burnout lead to poor job per-
formance, increased absenteeism, and reduced client sat-
isfaction with services (Knudsen et al. 2006; Morse et al.
2011). Emotional exhaustion has also been found to spread
among providers within organizations, thus further
increasing the negative effects of emotional exhaustion on
the organization (Bakker et al. 2001).
Prior research has established a positive association
between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention
(Blankertz and Robinson 1997; Lee and Ashforth 1996;
Mor Barak et al. 2001), and emotional exhaustion has been
A. E. Green � E. A. Miller � G. A. Aarons (&)
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 9500 Gilman
Drive (0812), La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093-0812, USA
e-mail: gaarons@ucsd.edu
A. E. Green � E. A. Miller � G. A. Aarons
Child and Adolescent Services Research Center at Rady
Children’s Hospital, San Diego, CA, USA
123
Community Ment Health J (2013) 49:373–379
DOI 10.1007/s10597-011-9463-0
shown to predict future voluntary turnover (Wright and
Cropanzano 1998). Turnover intention refers to the likeli-
hood that an employee will leave their position in the near
future. Although actual turnover may be involuntary or due
to external factors (e.g., spousal job change, moving out of
the area), most turnover is related to organizational or job-
related factors (Mor Barak et al. 2001). Turnover intention
is related to other withdrawal behaviors such as tardiness
and absenteeism that negatively affect organizations
(Halfhill et al. 2002) and is a strong and consistent pre-
dictor of actual turnover (Griffeth et al. 2000; Vandenberg
and Nelson 1999).
Staff turnover is an ongoing and costly problem that
negatively affects staff morale, team performance and
productivity, and ultimately organizational effectiveness
(Abbasi and Hollman 2000; Argote et al. 1995; Gray et al.
1996). Annual turnover rates in agencies providing mental
health and social services can exceed 50% (Glisson et al.
2006), and have been attributed to factors including high
stress environments, lack of support, and low pay (Aarons
and Sawitzky 2006). In organizations providing clinical
services, turnover can lead to disruptions in service pro-
vision and weaker staff-consumer relationships, therefore
negatively affecting the quality and outcomes of services
provided by these organizations and their staff (Albizu-
Garcı́a et al. 2004; Glisson et al. 2006; Knudsen et al.
2006). Reducing turnover intention among community
mental health providers can help alleviate some of the costs
associated with turnover and related behaviors, as well as
improve the quality of services provided to clients.
In order to reduce turnover intention among employees,
it is important to identify potential protective factors. One
factor that may affect both emotional exhaustion and
turnover intention is leadership of mental health pro-
gram managers, in particular, transformational leadership
(Aarons et al. 2011; Stordeur et al. 2001). Transforma-
tional leadership, as described by the full range model of
leadership, is characterized by four leader behaviors—
idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual
stimulation, and individual consideration (Bass 1990).
Idealized influence is the extent to which a leader is
admired, respected, and trusted. Inspirational motivation is
the extent to which a leader promotes a common vision
and provides meaning to the work of staff. Intellectual
stimulation is the extent to which a leader stimulates staff
to think in new ways and supports innovation and crea-
tivity, and individual consideration is the extent to which a
leader takes into account the specific needs of individual
employees and works to promote their growth and
development (Bass 1990).
Transformational leadership is positively associated with
several organizational processes and outcomes, including
follower job performance, job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and staff
attitudes toward adopting evidence-based practices (Aarons
2006; MacKenzie et al. 2001; Walumbwa et al. 2005).
Previous research has found that transformational leader-
ship is negatively associated with both emotional exhaus-
tion (Stordeur et al. 2001) and turnover intention (Bycio
et al. 1995; Hughes et al. 2010; Rafferty and Griffin 2004)
and moderates the effect of organizational climate on
turnover intention (Aarons et al. 2011). Transforma-
tional leaders may help to reduce emotional exhaustion
and turnover intention by strengthening group cohesion,
increasing organizational commitment, and recognizing and
rewarding the work done by followers. By providing sup-
port and inspiration, transformational leaders can buffer the
negative effects of a stressful job environment (Stordeur
et al. 2001). This may be especially beneficial for workers in
the high stress field of mental health care.
While some predictors of transformational leadership
such as extroversion and emotional stability are related to
individual differences (Bono and Judge 2004), a number of
studies have shown that training individuals in transfor-
mational leadership can lead to measurable behavioral
change (Avolio and Bass 1998; Barling et al. 1996; Kel-
loway et al. 2000; Parry and Sinha 2005). Results of
experimental and quasi-experimental studies have found
that employees of leaders undergoing transformational
leadership training report higher levels of leader intellec-
tual stimulation, charisma, idealized attributes, idealized
behavior, and individual consideration as well as higher
subordinate organizational commitment, compared to a
control group (Barling et al. 1996; Kelloway et al. 2000;
Parry and Sinha 2005). Some common features of these
leadership trainings include didactic training on leadership
styles, 360-degree feedback (i.e., multi-rater assessment of
leadership from self, subordinates, and supervisors), and
individualized coaching and consultation. Given that such
training programs can produce positive leader behavior
change, it is important to examine the potential moderating
role of transformational leadership in relation to organi-
zational processes and individual differences in mental
health service systems.
The current study examines the relationships between
emotional exhaustion, turnover intention, and transforma-
tional leadership in a sample of public sector mental health
care providers serving children, adolescents, and families.
In accordance with previous literature, we hypothesized
that emotional exhaustion will be positively related to
turnover intention. We also predicted that transformational
leadership will be negatively related to both emotional
exhaustion and turnover intention. Finally, we hypothe-
sized that transformational leadership will moderate the
relationship between emotional exhaustion and turn-
over intention. Specifically, as transformational leadership
374 Community Ment Health J (2013) 49:373–379
123
increases, the relationship between emotional exhaustion
and turnover intention will be attenuated.
Methods
Participants
Researchers invited 72 public sector programs providing
mental health services for children, adolescents, and fam-
ilies to participate in the current study. Of the 72 eligible
programs, 64 programs agreed to participate (89% response
rate). However, data was not available on supervisor rat-
ings for two of the participating programs. The total
number of eligible participants from the participating
programs was 440, of which 435 agreed to participate
(98.9% response rate). Forty-seven of the participants were
primarily supervisors and did not report on their own
supervisor’s leadership behaviors resulting in a final sam-
ple of 388 community mental health providers.
Measures
Emotional Exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion was assessed using the Emotional
Exhaustion subscale from the Children’s Services Survey
(Glisson and James 2002) based on the Emotional Exhaustion
subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach et al.
1996). Examples of scale items include: ‘‘I feel emotionally
drained from my work,’’ and ‘‘I feel used up at the end of the
workday.’’ Participants indicated their level of agreement with
each statement on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 0 ‘‘Not at
all,’’ to 4 ‘‘To a very great extent,’’ with higher scores repre-
senting higher levels of emotional exhaustion. The scale has
demonstrated sound psychometric and measurement charac-
teristics (six items, current sample a = 0.91).
Transformational Leadership
The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire-5x (Bass and
Avolio 1995) was used to assess participants’ perceptions
of their supervisor’s leadership behaviors. Providers were
asked to report on the extent to which their immediate
supervisor engaged in specific behaviors (e.g., spends time
teaching and coaching). Each behavior was rated on a
5-point scale ranging from 0 ‘‘Not at all,’’ to 4 ‘‘To a very
great extent.’’ Transformational leadership was assessed
using the following four subscales: Idealized Influence
(eight items, current sample a = 0.85), Inspirational
Motivation (four items, current sample a = 0.89), Intel-
lectual Stimulation (four items, current sample a = 0.81),
and Individual Consideration (four items, current sample
a = 0.85). Overall transformational leadership was calcu-
lated as the mean score across all items in these four
subscales (20 items, a = 0.95).
Turnover Intention
Turnover intention is defined as the degree to which the
respondent intends to leave or stay at their organization.
Turnover intention was assessed with five items (e.g., ‘‘I
am actively looking for a job at another agency’’) derived
from organizational studies and adapted for use in human
service agencies (Knudsen et al. 2003; Walsh et al. 1985).
Respondents rated each item on a 5-point scale ranging
from 0 ‘‘Not at all,’’ to 4 ‘‘To a very great extent.’’ The
scale has good factor structure and validity with factor
loadings ranging from 0.82 to 0.88, and excellent reliability
(five items; current sample a = 0.89).
Control Variables
The questionnaire also included questions about respon-
dents’ age, gender, mental health care tenure, and caseload
size. Mental health experience was the number of years and
months the respondent has worked in mental health care.
Caseload size reflects a clinician’s self-reported number of
active cases at the time of the survey administration.
Procedure
A program manager at each program was contacted and the
study was described in detail. Permission was sought to
survey service providers who worked directly with youths
and families. For participating programs, providers’ survey
sessions were scheduled at the program site at a time des-
ignated by the program manager. Surveys were administered
to groups of providers. The project coordinator or a trained
research assistant administered providers’ surveys and was
available during the survey session to answer any questions
that arose. Surveys averaged approximately 60 minutes in
length. Participants received a verbal and written description
of the study, and informed consent was obtained before the
survey. Participation in the study was voluntary, and all
participant responses were confidential. This study was
approved by the appropriate institutional review boards
(University of California-San Diego, Rady Children’s Hos-
pital, and San Diego County Mental Health Services). The
authors of this study report no known conflicts of interest and
certify responsibility for this manuscript.
Analyses
Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were first
conducted to examine associations of turnover intention
Community Ment Health J (2013) 49:373–379 375
123
with the covariates well as the intercorrelations among the
covariates. Next, a moderated regression analysis was
conducted to examine the associations of transformational
leadership and emotional exhaustion with turnover inten-
tion as well as the moderating effect of transformational
leadership on the relationship between emotional exhaus-
tion and turnover intention. Because providers were nested
within supervisors, resulting in potential dependency of
responses within supervisors, multilevel analyses were
conducted to control for the effects of the nested data
structure (Hedeker et al. 1991; Raudenbush and Bryk
2002). Additionally, clinician age, gender, months working
in mental health care, and caseload size were included in
the analyses as control variables. Following the recom-
mendations of Kleinbaum et al. (2008), a decision was
made to include the control variables in the final model if
they accounted for a change of more than 15% in the
parameter estimates for the covariate or moderation terms.
Analyses were conducted in SPSS 18.0 using the mixed
model function to account for the nested data structure.
Results are presented using unstandardized parameter
estimates.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
The mean age for participants was 36.0 (SD = 10.6) years
and the majority of respondents were female (81.4%). The
racial/ethnic distribution was 51.7% Caucasian, 7.8%
African American, 23.9% Hispanic, 4.2% Asian American,
0.3% Native American, and 12.2% Other. Participants’
highest level of education was as follows: 5.9% Ph.D./
M.D. or equivalent, 63.9% master’s degree, 6.7% graduate
work but no degree, 13.4% bachelor’s degree, 2.3% asso-
ciate’s degree, 3.9% some college but no degree, 1.0% high
school diploma, and 0.3% less than a high school diploma.
Participants worked in the mental health services field
for a mean of 7.9 years (SD = 7.4), in child and/or ado-
lescent mental health services for a mean of 6.9 years
(SD = 7.2), and in their present agency for 3.0 years
(SD = 4.1). The average caseload size for participants was
14.8 clients (SD = 13.32).
The average emotional exhaustion score was 1.23
(SD = 1.0), on a 0–4 scale, with higher scores signifying
higher levels of emotional exhaustion. The average trans-
formational leadership score was 2.40 (SD = 0.86), with
higher scores signifying higher levels of transformational
leadership behaviors, and the average level of turnover
intention was 1.47 (SD = 1.04), with higher scores indi-
cating greater intentions to leave one’s current position.
Table 1 presents the intercorrelations among all study
variables. As expected, emotional exhaustion was posi-
tively correlated with turnover intention. Additionally,
consistent with our hypotheses, transformational leadership
was negatively correlated with both emotional exhaustion
and turnover intention. Of the hypothesized control vari-
ables, only age and months in mental health were signifi-
cantly related to turnover intention with younger providers
and providers with less time working in the field reporting
greater turnover intention.
Regression Analyses
When examining the combined effects of the selected
control variables entered into the multilevel regression
equation simultaneously with the independent variables
and moderator term, the observed change in coefficients
was less than 15%. Additionally, none of the control
variables were significant when entered with the other
covariates in the model. Therefore, we present the mod-
erated regression model and coefficient terms without
including the effects of these non-significant control
variables.
Table 2 presents the results of the moderated multilevel
regression analyses. As predicted, emotional exhaustion
was significantly associated with turnover intention.
However, when controlling for the effects of emotional
exhaustion, the relationship between transformational
leadership and turnover intention was attenuated such that
it was no longer significant in the model. As hypothesized,
a significant moderator relationship existed, whereby
higher levels of transformational leadership reduced the
Table 1 Intercorrelations
of study variables
1 = male, 2 = female
* P \ 0.05, ** P \ 0.01
1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Sex
2. Age -0.08
3. Caseload 0.07 0.04
4. Months working in MH -0.16** 0.63 0.06
5. Emotional exhaustion 0.03 -0.06 0.09 -0.05
6. Transformational leadership -0.09 -0.01 0.06 0.02 -0.30**
7. Turnover intention -0.04 -0.14** 0.02 -0.17** 0.44** -0.28**
376 Community Ment Health J (2013) 49:373–379
123
positive associations between emotional exhaustion and
turnover intention. As shown in Fig. 1, we employed a
mean split on the transformational leadership variable to
categorize supervisors into those with high and low trans-
formational leadership. We then used the unstandardized
regression equations to display the relationships between
emotional exhaustion and turnover intention as moderated
by leadership.
Discussion
Although both emotional exhaustion and turnover intention
have been identified as significant issues affecting mental
health providers and organizations (Aarons et al. 2009a, b;
Glisson et al. 2006; van Daalen et al. 2009), research
suggesting ways to reduce the relationship between the
emotional exhaustion and turnover intention have been
rare. This study examined the effects of emotional
exhaustion and transformational leadership on turnover
intention in a sample of mental health care providers. As
hypothesized, emotional exhaustion was positively related
to turnover intention and transformational leadership was
negatively related to both emotional exhaustion and turn-
over intention. However, in multivariate analyses only
emotional exhaustion was related to turnover intention.
Additionally, as hypothesized, transformational leadership
moderated the association between emotional exhaustion
and turnover intention, with higher transformational lead-
ership reducing the strength of the positive association.
This finding indicates that having a stronger transforma-
tional leader may help to buffer the effects of emotional
exhaustion on turnover intention.
Leadership is a key organizational issue both in times of
stable organizational operations and in times of organiza-
tional change (Aarons and Sommerfeld 2011). While
leadership development programs are readily available,
there has been little attempt to validate many such trainings.
By exploring transformational leadership as exemplified in
the full range model, we examined an ‘‘evidence-based’’
approach to leadership. Indeed, the full range model is the
most thoroughly researched approach to leadership with
validity evidence in multiple types of industries and orga-
nizations, and across national and international contexts
(Antonakis et al. 2003; Lowe et al. 1996).
Some limitations of the present study should be noted.
First, only cross-sectional data was collected, therefore
causality cannot be determined. Second, all variables were
based on respondent self-reports, and therefore common
method variance may have influenced the results presented
here. However, the scales and measures were spread
throughout a longer survey and the leadership measure
assesses specific observable behaviors. Finally, this study
took place in one county mental health service system and
results may not generalize to other service sectors or
workers. However, these results may inform studies in
other sectors and service systems, as workforce issues that
are common across service sectors and types.
In community mental health services, training supervi-
sors in transformational leadership may help to engage
staff and reduce emotional exhaustion and burnout. Each
dimension of transformational leadership can be applied
specifically to mental health services. For example, intel-
lectual stimulation may improve the ability of staff to
problem solve around the variety of problems presented by
clients, while inspirational motivation may build on pro-
viders’ desire to help clients to create an environment in
which team members support one another in their pursuit
of shared goals. Leadership training targeted to the devel-
opment of strategic climates is another potential area for
Table 2 Multilevel moderated regression of emotional exhaustion
and transformational leadership on turnover intention
Variable B SE t
Intercept 1.06 0.28 3.82
Emotional exhaustion 0.65** 0.14 4.65
Transformational leadership -0.04 0.10 -0.38
Emotional exhaustion by transformational
leadership
-0.11* 0.06 -1.97
* P \ 0.05, ** P \ 0.01
Fig. 1 Moderation effect of transformational leadership on the
relationship between provider’s emotional exhaustion and turnover
intention
Community Ment Health J (2013) 49:373–379 377
123
both research and applied work in mental health services.
Strategic climates are those that focus on a particular issue
or strategy (Schneider et al. 2005). For example, leaders
could be trained to create a favorable climate for evidence-
based practice implementation (Aarons et al. 2011).
Emotional exhaustion and turnover are persistent prob-
lems for mental health agencies and systems, contributing
to higher costs and diminishing service quality. However,
there is cause for optimism that these issues can be
addressed. The results of this study suggest that investing
in developing supervisor transformational leadership
knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors could improve
provider emotional exhaustion and ultimately reduce
turnover. Transformational leadership skills can be learned,
and training programs focused on transformational lead-
ership have been shown to improve job performance and
organizational commitment of those supervised by trainees
(Barling et al. 1996; Dvir et al. 2002). Therefore, leader-
ship is a promising area for intervention and one that can
improve the lives of supervisors, providers, and ultimately
improve the quality and outcomes of mental health services
(Glisson and James 2002; Glisson et al. 2008; Knudsen
et al. 2003; Stordeur et al. 2001).
Acknowledgments This research was supported by National Insti-
tute of Mental Health grants R01MH072961, R21MH082731,
K01MH001695 (PI: Aarons) and P30MH074678 (PI: Landsverk). We
thank the organizations, supervisors, and service providers that par-
ticipated in the study and made this work possible.
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- Transformational Leadership Moderates the Relationship Between Emotional Exhaustion and Turnover Intention Among Community Mental Health Providers
- Abstract
- Methods
- Participants
- Measures
- Emotional Exhaustion
- Transformational Leadership
- Turnover Intention
- Control Variables
- Procedure
- Analyses
- Results
- Descriptive Statistics
- Regression Analyses
- Discussion
- Acknowledgments
- References