The interplay between servant leadership, psychological safety, trust in a leader and burnout: assessing causal relationships through a three-wave longitudinal study

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented psychological challenges for the frontline healthcare workers, especially nurses', causing anxiety and depression leading to burnout. The responsibility of healthcare leaders has increased many folds to curb nurses' burnout which could lead to various unwanted negative consequences at the workplace if left unchecked. To respond to this issue, this study is an attempt to employ the conservation of resources theory to examine the relationship between perceived servant leadership and nurses' burnout, with the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of trust in leaders. A three-wave longitudinal design was used to collect data. Respondents included 1,204 nurses from 27 hospitals across nine provinces in China. The partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used for data analyses with smartPLS 3.2.8 software. The findings endorse that servant leadership measured at the time1 significantly reduces nurses' burnout measured at the time 3 through mediating role of psychological safety measured at the time2, and that a higher level of trust in the leader enhances the impact of servant leadership in reducing nurses' burnout.

Research on the relationship between nurses' compliance with standard precautions, servant leadership and emotional exhaustion: A cross‐sectional survey

“…The negative predictive effect of servant leadership on emotional exhaustion has been verified, consistent with the conclusion of Ma Ying and Ahmed Fawad et al. (Ahmed et al., 2023; Ma et al., 2021). According to the job demands‐resources model (JD‐R), due to the high requirements of the nursing profession, a lack of job resources leads to an increase in emotional exhaustion.…”

The Survey Measure of Psychological Safety and Its Association with Mental Health and Job Performance: A Validation Study and Cross-Sectional Analysis

“…A supportive work environment may make workers feel safe in taking interpersonal risks. PS has been known to mediate the relationship between servant or inclusive leadership and job-related outcomes (e.g., job performance) [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Concerning servant leadership, subscales of empowerment showed the greatest associations for both HCWs and non-HCWs.…”

“…This measure is the first Japanese scale that can evaluate the multidimensional PS of leaders, peers, and teams in the workplace. The associations with other important factors [ 2 ] (e.g., creativity, learning behavior) and the mediator role of PS, which recent studies examined [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], were not investigated in this study. Such evidence should be replicated in the future, using this scale in Japan.…”

“…A meta-analysis has reported that individual- and team-level PS is significantly related to work engagement, task performance, information sharing, creativity, learning behavior, and job satisfaction [ 2 ]. Recent studies have investigated the mediating role of PS in the association of leadership with job performance and mental health [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Papers published in the 2020s have focused more on the mediating effect of PS in the relationship between, for example, supervisor–subordinate communication and employees’ commitment [ 9 ], employees’ positive affect and motivations [ 10 ], and cognitive stress and turnover intentions [ 11 ].…”

Does Servant Leadership Decrease Bad Behaviors? The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety and the Moderating Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility

“…In the context of servant leadership, leaders who prioritize the needs of their subordinates can foster an environment of trust and reciprocity [27]. When a servant leader prioritizes his or her followers' needs, the followers may feel obliged to reciprocate the leader's favors through positive work behaviors, potentially reducing CWB [29]. Servant leadership, emphasizing interpersonal healing, empathy, and commitment to followers' personal growth [25], fosters a positive social exchange environment and high-quality leader-member exchange relationships [30], potentially reducing the likelihood of CWB.…”