The impact of Authentic Leadership, Structural Empowerment, Psychological Empowerment, Interpersonal Conflict, and Job Satisfaction on Turnover Intention among Early Career Nurses in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Leadership plays a vital role in the creation and sustainment of healthy work environments that are both structurally and psychologically empowering. Authentic leaders are instrumental in creating the conditions necessary to facilitate such environments for nurses in acute care contexts. By extension, healthy work environments are invaluable to enabling early career nurses (ECN) to focus on providing optimal care to clients in collaboration with their colleagues. Such collegial relationships in practice can support ECNs’ satisfaction in their role and desire to remain in their practice contexts and the nursing profession. A non-experimental, predictive, correlational, cross-sectional survey design study was used to assess the relationship between authentic leadership, structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, interpersonal conflict, job satisfaction, and turnover intention among ECNs (n=215) working at public hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. The hypothesized model was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of this dissertation revealed that authentic leadership had a significant positive effect on structural empowerment and a significant indirect positive effect on psychological empowerment. Authentic leadership also had a significant indirect negative (inverse) effect on interpersonal conflict and a significant indirect and positive effect on job satisfaction. Structural empowerment had a significant direct effect on psychological empowerment and on job satisfaction, and a significant negative (inverse) direct effect on interpersonal conflict. Psychological empowerment was found to be significantly and positively related to interpersonal conflict, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. The results showed that interpersonal conflict had a significant and positive effect on turnover intention, whereas job satisfaction had a significant negative (inverse) effect on turnover intention. The results reinforce the importance of authentic leadership in facilitating structural empowerment, which subsequently fosters psychological empowerment of ECNs working in Saudi Arabia. Findings highlight the influence that authentic leadership could have in reducing interpersonal conflict and increasing ECNs’ job satisfaction through enabling and creating empowering working conditions, which could ultimately support the delivery of quality and safe client care. Key words: Authentic leadership, structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, interpersonal conflict, job satisfaction, turnover intention, early career nurses.