Authentic leadership as a source of optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement in the public health care sector

Abstract

Orientation: The orientation of this study is towards authentic leadership (AL) and its influence on optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement of employees in the public health care sector.Research purpose: The objectives of this study were to determine whether the leadership style of AL could predict optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement amongst a large sample of employees from various functions in public hospitals and clinics in Gauteng and to establish whether optimism and trust in the organisation could mediate the relationship between AL and work engagement.Research approach, design and method: A convenience sample of 633 public health employees from various functions within 27 public hospitals and clinics in the province was used in this research. A cross-sectional research design was implemented. Structural equation modelling was utilised to investigate the Authentic Leadership Inventory (ALI), and the validity and fit of the measurement model, to position AL as a job resource within the nomological net and to test its mediating effects.Main findings: The statistical analysis revealed that AL was a significant predictor of optimism and trust in the organisation and that optimism and trust in the organisation mediated the relationship between AL and work engagement.Practical/managerial implications: The research results suggested that organisations in the public health care sector should encourage their managers to adopt a more authentic leadership style. This will lead to higher levels of optimism, trust in the organisation and eventually work engagement. This will greatly assist employees in the domain of public health care to manage their demanding working environment.Contribution: This study provides evidence that the ALI can be used reliably within the South African context and specifically within the public health care sector. It further substantiates for the implementation of AL as a leadership style in the South African public health care sector, supporting work that has been done internationally in health care where AL has been associated with a number of positive outcomes. Finally, the study puts forward two practical suggestions, on both an individual and an organisational level, to facilitate a culture in which AL can be translated more effectively into an engaged workforce.

Authentic leadership in healthcare: a scoping review

“…This research theme included research on many psychological and rather personal issues involving working life. To be precise, the studies in this category included research on AL's relationship with psychological wellbeing at work (Nelson et al, 2014), work engagement (Bamford et al, 2013;Stander et al, 2015), job satisfaction (Giallonardo et al, 2010;Wong and Spence Laschinger, 2013;Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2014b;Rahimnia and Sharifirad, 2015;Read and Spence Laschinger, 2015;Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2015;, creativity (Malik et al, 2016), two dimensions of thriving (learning and vitality) (Mortier et al, 2016), voice behaviour (Wong and Cummings, 2009;Wong et al, 2010), performance (Wong and Cummings, 2009;Wong and Spence Laschinger, 2013) Part of the mediating factors in these studies were individual issues, such as personal and social identification (Wong et al, 2010;, occupational coping self-efficacy , psychological capital (Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2014b), trust in organisation (Stander et al, 2015), trust in manager (Wong and Cummings, 2009;Wong et al, 2010), person-job match (Bamford et al, 2013;Spence Laschinger and Read, 2016), optimism (Stander et al, 2015), empathy (Mortier et al, 2016), job satisfaction (Spence Laschinger et al, 2012), work engagement (Giallonardo et al, 2010;Wong et al, 2010), attachment insecurity (Rahimnia and Sharifirad, 2015), emotional exhaustion (Spence Laschinger et al, 2012; Laschinger and Fida, 2014a; Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2014b), cynicism (Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2014a; Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2014b), and burnout . Other mediating factors, such as work climate (Nelson et al, 2014), civility norms (Spence Laschinger and , patient care quality (Spence Laschinger and Fida, 2015), use ...…”

Nursing Academic Staff Engagement in Work Against Traditional and Innovative Leadership Styles

“…The current study results partially agree with many of studies conducted on 2016) that showed correlations ranged from weak to moderate, and higher than transactional leadership style (Strom et al, 2014). In addition, other studies conducted on authentic leadership style showed positive significant correlation with work engagement such as Maximo (2015) and Stander et al (2015). Besides, some other studies conducted on servant leadership style showed positive significant correlation with work engagement that its strength is higher than others such as Villier (2015) and Jafai et al (2016).…”

“Black Box” between Authentic Leadership and Follower Commitment

“…Prior studies confirm the positive affect of authentic leadership to several posi tive work out comes such as leader-member exchange (Wang et al, 2014), work engagement (Wong et al, 2010;Stander et al, 2015), helping behavior (Hirst et al, 2016), follo wer empower ment, and identi fication with supervisor (Walum bwa et al, 2010).…”