When Support Meets Expectation: "The Negative Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership on Nurses' Intention to...

Perceived organizational support and nurses' intention to stay are key elements in retaining nursing staff. Previous research has highlighted the work engagement of nursing staff as a factor that can be improved and is linked to retention. However, prior research has not explored the moderating role of transformational leadership in this relationship. This research aimed to provide insights into the relationships among perceived organizational support, transformational leadership, work engagement, and nurses' intention to stay within the context of an emerging country.

A quantitative research design was employed in this study, utilizing a structured questionnaire to collect data. This approach facilitated the collection of responses from a diverse group of healthcare professionals across Vietnam through an online platform. The proposed research model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

A total of 302 valid responses were included in the final analysis. The result found that perceived organizational support significantly enhanced both nurses' intention to stay and work engagement. Work engagement had a significant positive impact on nurses' intention to stay. Additionally, work engagement mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and nurses' intention to stay, while transformational leadership moderated this relationship.

The findings suggest that while perceived organizational support and work engagement enhance nurses' intention to stay, transformational leadership may inadvertently reduce this effect when leadership-driven expectations exceed the level of tangible organizational support. Therefore, healthcare managers should ensure that transformational leadership behaviors are closely aligned with concrete organizational support practices, such as adequate resources, fair policies, and workload support, to prevent expectation-support mismatches and sustain nurse retention.