Mental health team leadership and consumers' satisfaction and quality of life

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the association betwe en leadership styles of leaders of mental health treatment teams and consum ers' ratings of satisfaction with the program and their quality of life, Me thods: A multifactor model has distinguished three factors relevant to lead ership of mental health teams: transformational leadership, in which a lead er's primary goal is to lead the team to evolving better programs; transact ional leadership, in which the leader strives to maintain effective program s through feedback and reinforcement; and laissez-faire leadership, an inef fective, hands-off leadership style. Research has shown transformational le adership to be positively associated with measures of the team's functionin g, but the effects of leadership style on consumers is not well known. A to tal of 143 leaders and 473 subordinates from 31 clinical teams rated the le adership style of the team leader. In addition, 184 consumers served by the se teams rated their satisfaction with the treatment program and their qual ity of life. Results: Consumers' satisfaction and quality of life were inve rsely associated with laissez-faire approaches to leadership and positively associated with both transformational and transactional leadership, Moreov er, leaders' and subordinates' ratings of team leadership accounted for ind ependent valiance in satisfaction ratings-up to 40 percent of the total var iance. Conclusions: Leadership seems to be an important variable for unders tanding a team's impact on its consumers.