Toxic Leadership and Organizational Commitment in Faith-Based Healthcare Organizations

Abstract

In response to increasing cultural diversity at faith-based healthcare organizations, sincere, responsive, and sensitive leadership is critical to ensuring the organizational commitment of African American employees. Research was lacking on the relationship between toxic leadership and organizational commitment within faith-based healthcare settings. Further, little research existed on the ways toxic leadership affects the organizational commitment of African American workers. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, correlational study was to examine the relationship between toxic leadership and organizational commitment among African American employees of faith-based healthcare organizations. This study's theoretical framework was based on Schmidt's toxic leadership theory and Allen and Meyer's organizational commitment theory. The variables for this study included toxic leadership and organizational commitment, categorized as affective, continuance, or normative commitment. The sample consisted of 84 African American employees of faith-based healthcare organizations working in Central Florida. Data were collected via an online survey consisting of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire and Schmidt's Toxic Leadership Scale. The analysis consisted of three correlation tests to examine the relationship between (a) toxic leadership and (b) organizational commitment scales (affective, continuance, and normative). Results of the Spearman correlations indicated no statistically significant associations between toxic leadership and affective commitment or normative commitment. There was a significant, inverse association between toxic leadership and continuance commitment. Although more research is needed to understand toxic leadership and organizational commitment in faith-based facilities, the current study provides a foundation for future investigations.
 Keywords: Healthcare, Faith-based Healthcare, Organizational Commitment, Toxic Leadership

Toxic leadership and its relationship with outcomes on the nursing workforce and patient safety: a systematic review

“…In the study by Atalla and Hassan Mostafa (2023), nurses exposed to a toxic leader reported an overall reduction in the composite organizational commitment scores. In two separate studies, toxic leadership was associated with a significant reduction in affective (Abou Ramadan and Eid, 2020), normative (Abou Ramadan and Eid, 2020) and continuance commitment (Honer and Burchell, 2022). Organizational justice and organizational trust were outcomes tested in three studies.…”