An Investigation of the Mediating Effect of Leader Group Prototypicality on the Relationship Between Authentic Leadership and Psychological Ownership

Abstract

Taiwan's nursing leaders rarely receive formal training for leadership in academic research and practice. This study examined nursing faculty members' perceptions of nursing directors' leadership and nurses' self-psychological ownership levels to understand how perceptions of leadership styles related to psychological ownership in Taiwan. According to the social identity Theory, leadership group prototypicality have an important effect in employee's group identity, and work attitude. In this article, we explore the mechanism between authentic leadership and psychological ownership to understand how leadership group prototypicality works. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership and psychological ownership. Furthermore, leader group prototypicality was considered as a mediating factor between authentic leadership and psychological ownership. This study specifically focused on the hospital industry, involving a study sample of paired nurses and nurse leaders from six hospitals in Southern Taiwan. A purposeful sampling method was adopted, and 343 nurses' data and 33 unit leaders' data were collected. This study used HLM methods to test the hypotheses. The crucial findings of this study revealed a significant association between authentic leadership and psychological ownership via leader group prototypicality. Mediation analysis revealed a significant association between authentic leadership and psychological ownership via mediators, leader group prototypicality. The tested model provides empirical evidence about the pattern of authentic leadership in health care workplace, thus confirming the presence of authentic leadership in organizations.

Authentic leadership, organisational citizenship behaviours, and intention to quit: the indirect effect of psychological ownership

“…Authentic leaders exercise influence through creating a sense of personal and social identification between leader and follower (S. Chen et al, 2018; Gardner et al, 2005).…”

“…Leadership, specifically authentic leadership (AL), may be an important contextual resource that contributes to employee PO (Alok & Israel, 2012; S. Chen et al, 2018).…”

“…Authentic leaders are aware of and act in accordance with their own values, build credibility and respect in their followers, actively encourage diverse points of view, foster relational transparency (Avolio & Mhatre, 2012), and strive to encourage these values in their followers (Adil & Kamal, 2018). Authentic leaders continually encourage authenticity in their followers, hence promoting ownership values (S. Chen et al, 2018).…”