The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between nursing leadership and burnout among nurses in health care as well as the incidence of multidimensional leadership and burnout in Finnish nursing. A further purpose was to test a factor structure of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) in Finnish health care.

The empirical data were gathered by postal questionnaires from nursing staff working in university, central and district hospitals, health centers as well as psychiatric and private hospitals (n = 900, response rate 73%). In addition, a follow-up study was performed at a one-year interval (n = 100, response rate 79%). After deleting unusable questionnaires, the sample consisted of 627, and the follow-up study of 78 nurses and nurse leaders. The data were analyzed with descriptive and multivariate statistical methods.

Nurse leaders proved to be transformational leaders who rewarded their subordinates, but traditional active and passive management-by-exception and laissez-faire leadership also appeared in their leadership behavior. Half of the nursing staff were moderately burned out and about one tenth were highly burned out. Nearly one fifth suffered from high emotional exhaustion. Nursing leadership has both positive and negative effects on burnout among nursing staff. Rewarding transformational leadership and active management-by-exception functioned as protecting factors, and passive laissez-faire leadership as an exposing factor. However, the results suggest that the relation between leadership and burnout is complex, affected by situational factors of leadership and the ambiguous nature of burnout. The six- and three-factor structure of the MLQ as well as the three-factor structure of the MBI were empirically supported. According to psychometric properties both instruments are well applicable to Finnish health care research.

The results can be used in academic leadership education and leadership training in health care organizations, as well as to improve the quality of work life and to promote work well-being. The results can also be utilized in studies applying MLQ and MBI as well as when exploring factor structure of measures and in validation studies of instruments.

Department of Nursing Science and Health Administration , Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu
Finland
Ms. Outi Kanste

18/03/2005

Outi Kanste

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Quality of life

Health