{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T14:10:29Z","timestamp":1789135829250,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789084800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ.","EJIHPE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This scoping review examines how leadership shapes employees\u2019 mental health in disruptive, uncertain organizational contexts between 2020 and 2025. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic search across Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO yielded 43 eligible sources (30 empirical, 13 conceptual\/theoretical). Data were extracted and synthesized through critical interpretive synthesis. Findings indicate that transformational, ethical, servant, inclusive, and health-oriented leadership are associated with favorable well-being outcomes and with psychosocial resources including psychological safety, trust, and psychological capital. Conversely, authoritarian, toxic, destructive, and laissez-faire leadership are associated with burnout, psychological distress, organizational silence, and turnover intentions. Building on these observed associations, the interpretive synthesis generates three theoretically plausible propositions: leaders\u2019 emotional regulation may condition the protective potential of prosocial leadership; resource depletion under disruption may contribute to the intensification of dysfunctional leadership; and psychological safety, trust, and psychological capital may operate as interconnected mechanisms linking leadership with emotional exhaustion and resilience. These propositions represent synthesis-generated relationships requiring direct empirical testing rather than effects established by the reviewed evidence. Synthesizing these insights, this review proposes a dynamic emotional regulation framework of leadership under disruption. Rather than viewing leadership through static styles, the framework conceptualizes it as a relational, context-sensitive process whose implications for occupational mental health depend on psychosocial and contextual conditions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ejihpe16090138","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T13:29:29Z","timestamp":1789133369000},"page":"138","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Leadership and Employees\u2019 Mental Health Under Disruption: A Scoping Review and Critical Interpretive Synthesis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0852-1578","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos","family":"Santiago-Torner","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"REDEES Research Group, Faculty of Economics and Business, International University of La Rioja (UNIR), 26006 Logro\u00f1o, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7573-2490","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisenda","family":"Tarrats-Pons","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics and Business, University of Vic\u2014Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), 08500 Vic, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0782-3109","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9-Antonio","family":"Corral-Marfil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics and Business, University of Vic\u2014Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), 08500 Vic, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Abolnasser, M. 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