The relationship between toxic leadership and organizational performance: the mediating effect of nurses’ silence

Abstract

Aims To assess toxic leadership and organizational performance among nurses of a University Hospital, and explore the mediating effect of nurses ‘silence. Background Toxic Leadership behaviours are hurtful to feelings, leading to emotive fatigue and nurses silence within the legislative framework. In fact, it is very harmful to all organizations. However, little emphasis has been paid to research on the mediating mechanism and border factors of their connection. Methods A cross-sectional design was applied. Data was collected from 750 nurses over the course of three months. The researchers employed structured equation modeling [SEM] to investigate the role of nurses’ silence in mediating the association between toxic leadership and organizational performance. Results The toxic leadership level and Organisational performance level were both high. In addition to, the nurses’ silence level was moderate. The SEM revealed that toxic Leadership accounted for the prediction of 65% of the variance of nurses’ silence and 87% of the variance of organizational performance. Also, nurses silence as a mediating factor accounted for 73% of the variance of organizational performance. Conclusions This study emphasized on the importance of creating a work environment that encourages and promotes open communication, as well as eliminating toxic leadership behaviours from the organizational culture among nurses as it effects on the organizational performance.

Impact of inclusive leadership on employees’ innovative behavior: A relational silence approach

“…Furthermore, employee silence mediates the relationship between abusive management and employees’ creative performance ( Lee et al, 2022 ). Nurses’ silence can mediate the link between toxic leadership and organizational performance ( Farghaly Abdelaliem and Abou Zeid, 2023 ). Employees’ sense of supervisor rejection and their creativity are mediated by defensive silence ( Jahanzeb et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Consequently, this makes employees express their honest views at the workplace due to an enticing influence of genuine leadership, which suppresses the generation of silent behavior in an organization ( Monzani et al, 2016 ). However, the toxic leadership ( Farghaly Abdelaliem and Abou Zeid, 2023 ), abusive leadership ( Xu et al, 2015 ), and authoritarian leadership ( Duan et al, 2018 ) styles make employees lean toward silence, to protect their interests. This contrasts with the inclusive leadership style, which prioritizes leadership behaviors such as openness, effectiveness, and accessibility ( Qi et al, 2019 ), encompassing full interaction with subordinates, paying more attention to the needs and ideas of subordinates at the workplace, as well as, actively listening to the views of subordinates.…”

Toxic leadership, mental well-being and work engagement among nurses: a scale adaptation study and structural equation model approach

“…Despite this, it is reported that toxic leadership has not received the scientific attention it deserves and has a small percentage in leadership research (Gandolfi and Stone, 2022). It is seen that these studies are mostly conducted in Western countries and focus on the causes and prevalence of toxic leadership (Abdelaliem and Zeid, 2023;Guo et al, 2022;Ofei et al, 2022). In addition, a meta-analysis by Schyns and Schilling (2013) emphasizes the negative effects of destructive leadership and suggests that there is a need for studies that conceptualize toxic leadership.…”

“…Supportingly, previous studies indicate that managers' supportive leadership styles (Enwereuzor et al, 2018), and positive communication styles (Mohebbi et al, 2020) increase employees' work engagement. In addition, studies conducted on nurses report that toxic leadership styles negatively affect performance (Abdelaliem and Zeid, 2023), job engagement (Labrague et al, 2021;Shipl et al, 2022), productivity and job satisfaction (Ofei et al, 2022). This statistically significant relationship is likely a result of toxic leaders not establishing mutually beneficial relationships with their subordinates (Naeem and Khurram, 2020).…”

“…Health is one of these sectors, and one of the most affected professional groups is nursing (Salih et al, 2023). Previous studies have reported that toxic leadership, one of the destructive leadership styles, reduces nurses' organizational commitment (Ramadan and Eid, 2020), retention rate (Hossny et al, 2023), performance (Abdelaliem and Zeid, 2023), work engagement (Shipl et al, 2022) and morale (Salih et al, 2023). This leadership practice creates negative business outcomes and is a major concern for the nursing and healthcare fields.…”