Nurse Managers’ Authentic Leadership and their Relationship with Work Engagement among Registered Nurses

Abstract

Reports have highlighted the role of supportive work environments in several nurse outcome measures, indicating a need for effective leadership styles that improve the nurse working environment. Authentic leadership is a relatively new concept in Arab work culture. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between authentic leadership demonstrated by nurse managers and work engagement among Jordanian registered nurses. A cross-sectional correlational design was employed. A sample of 238 registered nurses working in a public hospital in Jordan was collected. Data collection was performed by using the staff demographics questionnaire, the authentic leadership questionnaire (ALQ), and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)-17 items. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were employed to analyze the data. The results showed a statistically significant positive correlation between authentic leadership and work engagement in the hierarchical regression analysis (B = 0.34, t = 5.54, $p<0.001$). After controlling demographic variables, authentic leadership accounted for 11% of the additional variance above and beyond the 5% accounted for age, educational level, and work experience (change of $R^2$ = 0.11, $p<0.01$). Nurses whose managers demonstrate higher levels of authentic leadership report more work engagement (r = 0.37, $p<0.001$). Considering the role of authentic leadership in promoting nurses’ work engagement, it would be beneficial to develop authentic leadership behaviors for nurse managers.