Investigating the relationship between leadership style of nursing department managers and work engagement in faculty members of Iranian universities of medical sciences

Abstract

Introduction: The success of an organization is determined by its human ‎resources. Work engagement leads to higher productivity and performance of the organization. Leaders seek to understand the impact of ‎their leadership style on work engagement. This is even more important in educational organizations but research in this area is insufficient. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between department ‎manager’s leadership styles and faculty member’s work engagement in some Iranian universities of medical ‎sciences‎.

Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical correlational study. 149 people including faculty members and department managers with at least 6 months of work experience were selected through the convenience sampling method. Data collection tools included ‎a demographic questionnaire, a multi-factor leadership questionnaire, and a Schaufeli & Bakker work engagement questionnaire whose validity and reliability were examined. ‎Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16.

Result: A total of 114 faculty members with 13.42 ± 9.75 and 35 department managers with 19.91 ± 8.67 work experience participated in this study. Faculty members reported high work engagement. There was a positive and significant relationship between work engagement and interactional (P = 0.010) and transformational leadership (P = 0.001). ‎There was a significant difference between manager’s and employee’s views on the interactional ‎and transformational leadership (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Managers can promote job engagement by selecting the proper leadership style, and the advantages can be leveraged to boost organizational productivity.