The Role of social identity in the relationship between transformational leadership and nurses’ job burnout considering the mediation of gender

Abstract

Extended abstract 1- INTRODUCTION Despite suffering from a shortage of nurses, healthcare organizations all over the world strive to treat their patients with the services of the best quality. previous research indicated that organizational factors (such as credible leadership) and the availability of organizational resources (such as physical space, time, etc.) reduced the possibility of burnout. however, empirical evidence for healthcare personnel is contradictory, which implicates the need for more research on organizational determinants of job burnout. given the critical role of nurses, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the necessity to consider their mental situations, the main purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of social identity and gender in the relationship between transformational leadership and job burnout among nurses of social security hospital in Rasht city. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK In general, there exists an increasing research flow on how to lead nurses in healthcare systems. the common belief is that effective leadership is of the most important factors in favorable work environments. a transformational leader who is seeking change in line with organizational objectives and environmental conditions encourages their subordinates to fulfill the organization's mission. on the other hand, social identity makes employees feel linked with group members and act align with the group’s goals and interests. social identity theory suggests that, for being distinguished from others emotionally and socially, people introduce themselves with common features of social institutions in which they are members. 3- METHODOLOGY The statistical population is comprised of 185 (75 male and 110 female) nurses of Rasool-e-Akram social security hospital in Rasht. A sample size of 130 was proposed by cochran's formula and selected by conducting simple random sampling. the data gathering instrument was a questionnaire made up of pre-made scales and obtained data analyzed by conducting PLS-SEM in SmartPLS v.3. 4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION Research results indicated that social identity mediates the significant and inverse effect of transformational leadership on job burnout. in addition, research results revealed that nurses’ gender does not moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and social identity. 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS Transformational leaders exploit employees' skills and ideas to lead their organizations into greater levels of entrepreneurial performance. they pay attention to members’ participation, group knowledge sharing, and giving a special place to employees. these factors may prevent employees from work overload, work stress, and job burnout. by creating dynamic groups in different divisions of the hospital and involving nurses in group activities, managers can reduce nurses’ work pressure and cause them to enjoy nursing activities as much as possible. regarding the rejection of moderating hypothesis, it can be said that although gender can influence the individuals’ social identity at the social level, it may not apply to nurses who subconsciously form a social identity within themselves. on the other hand, transformational leaders may undermine the role of nurses’ gender in shaping social identity because of their confidence in their subordinates, optimism, and positive attitude towards the future.