Relatively little has been written about the effects which
different leadership styles have on the stress levels of
followers. Bass (1992) at least acknowledges the problem
when he writes, “Leaders can cause stress among their
followers, for instance by exciting a mob, which is
already at fever pitch, to take hasty actions.” He goes on
to say that Seltzer et al. (1989) found that intellectually
stimulating leaders increased the perceived stress and
“burn-out” among their subordinates. Misumi (1985) also
found that production-oriented leaders generated
physiological symptoms of stress. Bass claims that, in
laboratory experiments, production-oriented leadership
caused higher levels of anxiety and hostility.
Of course, transformational leadership and charismatic
leadership theories (see Burns, 1978) focus on the effects
which leaders have on the followers who are generally
more self-assured and perceive more meaning in their
work. This would imply that these types of leadership
reduce the stress levels of their followers, but the specific
impact concerning stress has not been fully explored.