How workplace bullying affects nurses’ well-being? The roles of burnout and passive avoidant leadership

Purpose This study aims to investigate individual-related consequences of workplace bullying among the health-care section. Specifically, this study examined the mediating role of burnout between workplace bullying and nurses’ well-being. Moreover, passive avoidant leadership is examined as a conditional variable between workplace bullying and burnout. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data from 314 nurses working in various hospitals through a questionnaire-based survey using Google Form in two waves. Findings Structural equation modeling confirmed the negative effect of workplace bullying on nurses’ well-being, whereas burnout mediates this relationship. In addition, passive avoidant leadership was identified as a conditional variable that strengthens the positive association between workplace bullying and burnout. Research limitations/implications Although data for the study were collected in two waves, still cross-sectional design limits causality. Practical implications This study suggests management to focus on developing and implementing counter-bullying rules to avoid the adverse consequences of workplace bullying (e.g. capital loss, recruitment costs, burnout, well-being, etc.). In addition, leaders/supervisors must be trained to fulfill their responsibilities to reduce negative consequences. Originality/value Studies on workplace bullying in high-power distance cultures are scant. Therefore, drawing upon conservation of resource theory, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the moderating role of passive avoidant leadership on the association between workplace bullying and burnout.

Job Satisfaction as a Mediator between Leadership Styles and Organisational Commitment of Teachers in Malaysia

To better understand the organisational commitment of teachers, the current study examined job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and the three dimensions of leadership, namely transformational, transactional and passive-avoidant. The study involved 381 school teachers in Malaysia, and the multiple-model analysis used showed partial mediation on the negative association of passive-avoidant leadership style with teachers’ commitment to their organisation. The study found a relationship between transformational leadership and organisational commitment through job satisfaction. As expected, job satisfaction also fully mediated between transactional leadership and organisational commitment among teachers, and that teachers who are highly satisfied with their jobs attributed their commitment towards their school to transactional leadership. This study extends the knowledge on the effects of teachers’ leadership styles on their organisational commitments through a mediating factor. Higher education can play an important role in changing pre-service teachers' and future school principals’ mindsets to exhibit transformational and transactional leadership competencies. Therefore, leadership development and training of future school administrators during their tertiary education are important in order to enhance teachers' job satisfaction and commitment. Keywords: Teachers, Job satisfaction, Leadership styles, Organizational commitment, Malaysia

Safety-Specific Passive-Avoidant Leadership and Safety Compliance among Chinese Steel Workers: The Moderating Role of Safety Moral Belief and Organizational Size

Despite the documented relationship between active-approaching leadership behaviors and workplace safety, few studies have addressed whether and when passive-avoidant leadership affects safety behavior. This study examined the relationship between two types of safety-specific passive-avoidant leadership, i.e., safety-specific leader reward omission (SLRO) and safety-specific leader punishment omission (SLPO), and safety compliance, as well as the moderating effects of an individual difference (safety moral belief) and an organizational difference (organizational size) in these relationships. These predictions were tested on a sample of 704 steel workers in China. The results showed that, although both SLRO and SLPO are negatively related to safety compliance, SLPO demonstrated a greater effect than SLRO. Moreover, we found that steel workers with high levels of safety moral belief were more resistant to the negative effects of SLRO and SLPO on safety compliance. Although steel workers in large enterprises were more resistant to the negative effects of SLPO than those in small enterprises, the SLRO-compliance relationship is not contingent upon organizational size. The current study enriched the safety leadership literature by demonstrating the detrimental and relative effects of two types of safety-specific passive-avoidant leadership on safety compliance and by identifying two boundary conditions that can buffer these relationships among steel workers.

Relationship between Leadership Style and Hospital Employee Engagement in Papua New Guinea

Engagement, an important concept in the determination of overall employee output, has become an important factor within the healthcare sector, and in light of various challenges facing employees, such as high workloads and long working hours, engagement also plays a significant role in ensuring improved healthcare output. Meanwhile, leadership, which plays a major role in guiding and influencing employees toward goal achievement, is the driving force behind employee engagement. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between three different leadership techniques—transformational, transactional and passive avoidant—and employee engagement in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) healthcare sector. Research has shown that transactional and transformational leadership have the highest level of impact on employee engagement as a result of the role leaders play in the inspiration and stimulation of employees. The methodology applied to examine this statement involved a random selection of 84 health employees from three PNG hospitals: ANGAU Memorial Provincial Hospital, Mount Hagen General Hospital and Port Moresby General Hospital. A correlation analysis of the quantitative research methodology was then applied to evaluate the relationship between key variables in the collected data. A final analysis of results revealed that, within the PNG healthcare sector, transformational and transactional leadership both have a positive relationship with employee engagement, while passive avoidant leadership has a negative relationship with employee engagement.

Leadership styles and leadership outcomes in nursing homes: a cross-sectional analysis

Background Although leadership is considered as a key factor in health care, leadership styles and outcomes in nursing homes often remain a black box. Therefore, this study explored leadership styles and leadership outcomes of head nurses and directors of nursing (DoN) in nursing homes based on well-defined leadership concepts. Methods A multicenter cross-sectional analysis was conducted on baseline data of an ongoing cohort study comprising a convenience sample of nursing home staff (n = 302). Leadership styles and leadership outcomes of head nurses and DoN were measured through the rater form of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X (MLQ-5X). Based on the Full Range of Leadership Model, the MLQ-5X visualizes transformational (relation and change focused), transactional (task-focused) and passive-avoidant (absence of leadership) leadership styles. Scores of head nurses and DoN for leadership styles and outcomes were compared with European Reference Scores (ERS) using two-sided one-sample t-tests. Results Compared with ERS, head nurses and DoN scored significantly lower (p < 0.001) on transformational and transactional leadership styles and significantly higher (p < 0.001) on passive-avoidant leadership styles. All leadership outcomes were significantly lower (p < 0.001) for head nurses. Similar results, however not statistically significant, were found concerning leadership outcomes of DoN. Conclusions Results indicate that passive-avoidant leadership styles are excessively present in contrast to transformational leadership styles in nursing homes. This highlights an urgent need to invest in leadership development. Therefore, future research should focus on interventions for the development of transformational leadership.