The Relationship between Head Nurses’ Authentic Leadership Style and Nurses' Job Satisfaction and the Quality of Nursing Services at the Educational – therapeutic Centers of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background and Objective: One aspect of nurses' working lives affected by head nurses' leadership style is job satisfaction, which can change the quality of nursing services. The present study aimed to assess the association of head nurses' authentic leadership style with nurses' job satisfaction and the quality of nursing services at educational-therapeutic centers of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: The current cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2019. A total of 295 nurses and 885 patients were selected using the stratified random sampling method. The data collection tools included four questionnaires: a demographic characteristics form, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) by Walumbwa, The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), and the SERVQUAL service quality questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 24). Results: The application of the authentic leadership style by head nurses, job satisfaction of nurses, and the quality of nursing services obtained mean scores of 3.75, 3.45, and 3.83, respectively, demonstrating that they were at a moderate level. Head nurses' authentic leadership style showed a significant and weak relationship with nurses' job satisfaction (r=0.1, P=0.002) and perceived quality of nursing services (r=0.11, P=0001). Moreover, nurses' job satisfaction was weakly correlated with the quality of nursing services (r=0.16, p=0.001). Conclusion: Considering the weak but significant relationship between the variables, the authorities can take effective measures to improve job satisfaction and the quality of nursing services.