Integrating leadership with work engagement in nursing: A correlational study

Abstract

This study aimed at determining the relationship between leadership and the work engagement of nurses. This descriptive-correlational study was designed with 325 purposive nurse samples from participating three selected Philippine institutional provinces collected between March and June 2020 using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) instruments. Mainly perceived as having moderate level transformational (216 or 66.5%), transactional (214 or 65.8%), and passive-avoidant (227 or 69.8%) leadership, nurses were specifically regarded as highly inspirational motivators (score=8.22; SD+1.873) and content with standard performance (management-by-exception, score=8.09; SD+1.995) than being passive-avoidant (score=7.02; SD+1.916). Using IBM SPSS v.26, the study utilized a chi-square test of association which found out that all three nurses’ leadership styles and their factors were statistically significant with their overall work engagement (p=.000) and its domains namely, vigor (p=.000), dedication (p=.000), and absorption (p=.000) with moderate-, relatively strong-, and strong associations. Nurses’ multifactorial leadership and work engagement were suggestive interrelated characteristics that demonstrate an increasing level of leadership congruent with a higher level of work engagement. Hence, this study offers a remarkable hypothetical underpinning nurses’ opportunity to assume leadership roles and functions to improve their overall work engagement.