Reducing Healthcare Employees’ Burnout through Ethical Leadership: The Role of Altruism and Motivation

Abstract

Globally, employee burnout (EBO) is a black swan in healthcare management. Previous organizational management literature shows that EBO was often misunderstood by assuming it as a personal issue. However, the new definition by the World Health Organization (WHO) clearly indicates that EBO is an occupational phenomenon that places responsibility on organizations to manage it. Although recent evidence suggests ethical leadership (ELP) style may be important to mitigate EBO, shockingly, such relationships were not tested in healthcare systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Filling this knowledge gap in the existing body of knowledge, this study aimed to investigate the ELP–EBO relationship. To explain the underlying mechanism of how ELP reduces EBO, this study included two psychological factors as a mediator and a moderator: altruism (AL) and intrinsic motivation (IM). The data were obtained from hospital employees via a self-administered questionnaire (n = 289, paper-pencil method). A hypothetical framework was designed and tested for empirical validation through structural equation modeling (SEM). Empirical evidence confirmed that ELP reduces the risk of burnout among hospital employees, and AL mediates this relationship. The results also confirmed the conditional indirect role of IM in the above proposed mediated relationship. This study’s outcomes can help hospital administration deal with EBO’s epidemic in an ELP framework. Other, different implications have also been discussed in detail.

The role of ethical leadership and social networks in the promotion of workplace happiness and quality of care: A cross‐sectional study

“…14,18,41,42 Therefore, there is a need to further developing our empirical knowledge of ethical leadership in healthcare environments in the post-pandemic context. 8,41,43,44 Adding to the yet conceptually grounded view on ethical leadership, a similar effect is observed in the discussions of the effect of the workplace happiness of healthcare professionals in the quality of care delivered to patients. 34,[36][37][38] Therefore, this work addresses the imposing research questions: RQ1a: Does ethical leadership positively influence the social networks of healthcare professionals?…”

“…Similarly, it is important to uncover its contributions to the quality of healthcare professionals' social networks given the overreliance on communication and development enforced by such leadership type. Considering the discussed literature review on ethical leadership, suggesting a positive effect on both individual and organizational level outcomes in healthcare organisations, 8,[41][42][43][44] we propose that: H1. Ethical leadership has a positive and direct impact on social networks existing among healthcare professionals.…”

“…Specifically, works on ethical leadership still miss empirical testing 14,18,41,42 . Therefore, there is a need to further developing our empirical knowledge of ethical leadership in healthcare environments in the post‐pandemic context 8,41,43,44 . Adding to the yet conceptually grounded view on ethical leadership, a similar effect is observed in the discussions of the effect of the workplace happiness of healthcare professionals in the quality of care delivered to patients 34,36–38 …”

A Study of Influencing Leadership Styles on Financial Performance in Saudi Arabian Commercial Banks

“…Furthermore, research on leadership styles in hospitals showed that transformational leadership behaviors from supervisors and management led to higher performance (Wu et al, 2022). The results indicated that intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration (dimensions of transformational leadership) were positively associated with branch sales performance.…”

Mitigating Job Burnout in Jordanian Public Healthcare: The Interplay between Ethical Leadership, Organizational Climate, and Role Overload

“…Despite the abundance of research on the positive consequences of ethical leadership, there is a need to explore its role in enhancing both job burnout and broader psychological well-being [ 9 , 10 , 57 ], especially in the context of the healthcare [ 12 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 58 ]. This study aims to build on this foundation by examining the direct and indirect effects of ethical leadership on employee well-being within the context of public healthcare organizations.…”