Transformational leadership and innovative work behavior among nursing staff

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology
• Nursing Leadership

Background:

• Organizational innovation is vital, with effective leadership identified as a key driver.
• While some leadership styles promote nurse innovation, a clear model for transformational leadership's impact is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To build and test a theoretical model explaining how transformational leadership influences nurses' innovative work behavior.
• To examine the roles of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and knowledge sharing as intervening variables.
• To investigate the moderating effects of empowerment role identity and trust-based relationships.

Main Methods:

• A theoretical model was developed and empirically tested.
• Data were collected via structured questionnaires from 587 nurses and 164 doctors in Pakistani public sector hospitals.
• Statistical analyses were employed to evaluate the proposed relationships and moderating effects.

Main Results:

• Transformational leadership positively impacted nurses' psychological empowerment.
• Psychological empowerment influenced intrinsic motivation and knowledge sharing behavior.
• Intrinsic motivation and knowledge sharing positively affected innovative work behavior.
• Moderating roles of empowerment role identity and trust (reliance and disclosure) were identified.

Conclusions:

• Transformational leadership significantly fosters nurse innovative work behavior through psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and knowledge sharing.
• The findings underscore the importance of leadership development programs to enhance nursing innovation.
• Interventions aimed at increasing psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing can amplify the positive effects of transformational leadership.