Health-oriented Leadership (HoL) is an established health-specific leadership style whose effectiveness has been demonstrated repeatedly. However, research on its antecedents is still limited. Specifically, little is known about how leaders in "sandwich positions" – those reporting to a supervisor while leading their own team – are influenced by their direct supervisor’s Health-oriented Leaderhip and how it shapes their own StaffCare and SelfCare, which are the employee-directed (StaffCare) and self-directed (SelfCare) aspects of Health-oriented Leadership. This study investigates how upper-level leaders’ SelfCare and StaffCare influence lower-level leaders’ engagement in these behaviors. Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources Model and social information processing theory, we explore the transfer of Health-oriented Leadership behaviors and the role of perceived stigmatizing attitudes surrounding workplace health promotion as a boundary condition for that. Using two-wave survey data, mediation and moderation analyses via PROCESS revealed that upper-level leaders’ SelfCare indirectly influenced lower-level leaders’ StaffCare through upper-level StaffCare and lower-level SelfCare. Perceived stigmatizing attitudes moderated the transfer of StaffCare and the relationship between upper-level StaffCare and lower-level SelfCare. These findings extend the HoL model by incorporating the upper-level leader’s influence and emphasize the importance of addressing stigmatizing attitudes toward health promotion. Keywords: Leadership; Coping/ Stress and Burnout; Health and Wellness
