A1.3
Tracks
Stream A
| Thursday, October 29, 2026 |
| 2:15 PM - 2:30 PM |
Overview
Leader work design for psychosocial risk management and sustainable leadership | 15 mins
Presenter
Kylie Pearsall
Child & Adolescent Health Service, WA Health
Leader work design for psychosocial risk management and sustainable leadership
2:15 PM - 2:30 PMAbstract
Leader wellbeing is often addressed through individual strategies such as resilience, self-care, boundary setting, and access to support services. While these may help, they can obscure a more fundamental issue: psychosocial risk embedded in the design of leadership roles themselves. Drawing on a qualitative study of 23 mid-level leaders, this presentation examines how leader work design shapes exposure to psychosocial hazards, what organisations may be getting wrong in their current responses, and why this matters for sustainable leadership.
Findings suggest that leader strain is not simply a function of high workload, but of roles that combine sustained overload with responsibility that exceeds decision latitude. Participants described protecting their teams from pressure while absorbing that pressure themselves, managing illegitimate tasks that diverted effort from core leadership work, and experiencing physical and psychological strain despite actively using individual wellbeing strategies. The findings also raise a broader organisational concern: when leadership roles are experienced as unhealthy, they may become less desirable, weakening the pipeline of workers willing to move into leadership.
Extending the research findings with additional interview material on what leaders would redesign, this presentation offers practical implications for consultants and organisations. In particular, it highlights that effective work design for leaders should not be treated as interchangeable with work design for workers. Instead, organisations may need to focus on capacity buffers, genuine decision latitude, reduction of illegitimate tasks, and role design that supports sustainable leadership over time.
Although grounded in one industry context, the issues identified are likely to resonate across complex organisational settings. This session will highlight the role of work design as a higher-order control for psychosocial risk management and outline practical priorities for redesigning leadership roles to better prevent harm and sustain leadership capability over time.
Findings suggest that leader strain is not simply a function of high workload, but of roles that combine sustained overload with responsibility that exceeds decision latitude. Participants described protecting their teams from pressure while absorbing that pressure themselves, managing illegitimate tasks that diverted effort from core leadership work, and experiencing physical and psychological strain despite actively using individual wellbeing strategies. The findings also raise a broader organisational concern: when leadership roles are experienced as unhealthy, they may become less desirable, weakening the pipeline of workers willing to move into leadership.
Extending the research findings with additional interview material on what leaders would redesign, this presentation offers practical implications for consultants and organisations. In particular, it highlights that effective work design for leaders should not be treated as interchangeable with work design for workers. Instead, organisations may need to focus on capacity buffers, genuine decision latitude, reduction of illegitimate tasks, and role design that supports sustainable leadership over time.
Although grounded in one industry context, the issues identified are likely to resonate across complex organisational settings. This session will highlight the role of work design as a higher-order control for psychosocial risk management and outline practical priorities for redesigning leadership roles to better prevent harm and sustain leadership capability over time.
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Kylie Pearsall is an organisational development professional working in psychosocial risk management, with interests in leader wellbeing, leader work design, and sustainable leadership. She is particularly interested in how work design can function as a higher-order control for psychosocial risk, and in translating research into practical strategies for complex organisations.
