The work-to-home crossover of leadership role occupancy: Examining how leadership role occupancy influences spouses’ sleep loss and obesity.

Abstract

Drawing on resource-based theories of self-regulation and the spillover–crossover model, we investigated not only how leadership role occupancy may affect job occupants’ obesity but also how its influences may cross over to shape their spouses’ obesity. Adopting a programmatic approach with three panel datasets from the US, the UK, and Australia, we found that leadership role occupancy was positively related to job demands, which in turn was positively related to job occupants’ loss of sleep and obesity. Moreover, the spillover– crossover influences of job demands were also revealed: incumbents’ job demands were also positively associated with spouses’ loss of sleep and obesity. Our research enriches the leadership research by offering a new spillover–crossover perspective to the consequences of leadership role occupancy, and contributes to work–family research by highlighting the importance of holding a leadership position as an antecedent of the crossover effect of job demands on health outcomes.