Impact of authentic leadership on the perceived organizational support and silence behavior of subordinate nurses

Abstract

Objective To explore the impact of authentic leadership on silence behavior of nurses and test the mediating effect of organizational support. Methods The 354 valid questionnaires were collected using the a cross-sectional survey with Authentic Leadership Questionnaire, Perceived Organizational Support Scale and Silence Behavior Scale between September to November in 2015, using the multiple line hierarchical regression analysis to test the relationship between variables. Results Authentic leadership could significantly promote the perceived organizational support of subordinate nurses (β= 0.543, P<0.01), which in turn, significantly restrain silence behavior of subordinate nurses (β= -0.323, P <0.01), the perceived organizational support completely mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and silence behavior (β=0.175, P < 0.01). Conclusions By constructing the supporting work environment, authentic leadership can eliminates nurses' voice worry, motivates the voice motivation and efficiency, in turn to break the silence. This article propose the action mechanisms from three perspectives. Key words: Nurses; Authentic leadership; Perceived organizational support; Silence behavior