Associating Empowering Leadership and Occupational Burnout in Nursing: A Mediated Moderation Model

Abstract

Based on empowerment and hardiness theory, this study investigated the dual impact of empowering leadership on occupational burnout through the mediating role of workaholism and the moderating impact of psychological hardiness in the relationship between empowering leadership and occupational burnout. Additionally, the mediated moderation model was investigated. Temporal separation (two time-lags with one-month separation from first-lag to second-lag) data collection approach was applied to collect opinions from the study participants through survey method; 212 permanent employees (nurses) participated from the healthcare sector to test the proposed hypothesis of this study. Using PROCESS macros, the study's findings revealed that empowering leadership is a significant predictor of minimizing occupational burnout. Moreover, the study's findings also validate that workaholism is a critical mediator between empowering leadership and occupational burnout. The results indicated that empowering leadership also leads to burden nurses as they work excessively and leads to occupational burnout. Further, Psychological hardiness plays an important moderator role in the link between workaholism and occupational burnout. Finally, the results of mediated moderation model demonstrated that nurses with high psychological hardiness adjust and cope well with the stressful workload i-e., workaholism when empowered by their leaders/supervisors. The findings highlight the potential benefit and risks of empowering leadership for the nursing profession and healthcare management. This study extends the previous literature by empirically testing how workaholism and psychological hardiness affect the empowering leadership and occupational burnout relationship in the nursing profession of Pakistan. Key Words Empowering Leadership; Workaholism; Psychological Hardiness; Occupational Burnout