How and why strengths-based leadership relates to nurses’ turnover intention: the roles of job crafting and work fatigue

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigated the relationship of strengths-based leadership with nurses’ turnover intention and the mediating roles of job crafting and work fatigue in the relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Data comprising 318 valid participants from three hospitals in Beijing were gathered at two points in time, spaced by a two-month interval. Structural equation modeling with a bootstrapping analysis was applied to test hypotheses.

Findings

This study found that strengths-based leadership negatively relates to nurses’ turnover intention, and job crafting and work fatigue mediate the relationship of strengths-based leadership with turnover intention, respectively.

Originality/value

The findings of this study highlight the importance of strengths-based leadership in decreasing nurses’ turnover intention and reveal two potential mechanisms through which strengths-based leadership is related to nurses’ turnover intention. In order to retain nursing staff better, nurse leaders should execute more strengths-based leadership behaviors and make more efforts to promote nurses’ job crafting and to reduce nurses’ experience of work fatigue.

Citation

Wang, F., Wu, M., Ding, H. and Wang, L. (2024), "How and why strengths-based leadership relates to nurses’ turnover intention: the roles of job crafting and work fatigue", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-03-2023-0143