Impact of Psychological Empowerment on Workplace Bullying and Intent to Leave

Abstract

The objective of this study was to understand the association of psychological empowerment (PE) with workplace bullying and intent to leave among nurse leaders. BACKGROUND: Nurse leaders who experience bullying cope in varied ways. Some leaders have higher levels of empowerment and resilience, whereas others are more negatively impacted by bullying. METHODS: This study used a descriptive, crosssectional survey design. Instruments used in the study included 2 PE tools: a bullying instrument and an intent-to-leave tool. The analysis tested for bivariate correlations and used analysis of variance to discern differences among nurse leaders. RESULTS: PE was negatively correlated with both bullying and intent to leave. Chief nursing officers and directors had significantly higher PE than did nurse managers, but there was no significant difference in intent to leave among the leader groups. CONCLUSIONS: PE may help protect against the impact of bullying. Continued development of leaders to strengthen their PE is needed.Healthcare settings can be seen as a volatile, complex, and ambiguous environment. 1 Nurse leaders are exposed to varied stressful and challenging situations on a daily basis. One of the most impactful and disheartening experiences involves exposure to bullying, which is an occupational stressor that has multiple negative consequences. 2 The oppressive nature of work in the healthcare environment and existing power structures can lead to workplace aggression or bullying. 3 Bullying, which also may be called psychological abuse, 4 involves repeated, unwanted actions with the intent to offend, humiliate, degrade, undermine, and cause distress to the recipient. 5 Bullying behavior is "typically deliberate," is "an attempt to control employees," and is "aggressive, intentional, and frequent." 6(p1) A bullying work environment where individuals experience offensive, abusive, intimidating, or insulting behaviors can lead to negative psychological, physical, and financial ramifications 6,7 across the organization. "Bullies poison the work environment with low morale, fear, anger, and depression." 4(p378) Bullying can negatively impact the self-worth and selfconfidence of employees within the organization leading to physical symptoms, psychological conditions, decreased work capacity, and negative organizational outcomes. 5 Bullying in any form and at any level within the organization is harmful. However, boss bullying or top-down bullying has an even greater negative impact because of the fear that resides in the mind of employees who are targeted. Top-down bullying, or organizational boss bullying, may lead to the impression that bullying is a condoned and accepted workplace norm. 5,7 Boss bullying within the workplace takes various forms, to include unjustified criticism, trivial fault-finding, individual or group humiliation, failure to respond (ignore requests/needs), setting workload goals or deadlines that cannot be achieved, and delegating too much work for the individual to accomplish. 4 Workplace bull...

Nurse leaders' work‐related well‐being—Relationships to a superior's transformational leadership style and structural empowerment

“…A strength of the research was that the study was conducted in a large organisation that included various working environments. Moreover, the response rate in this study was high Organizations should ensure that leaders in every organizational level employ transformational leadership, as well as enhance structural empowerment among nurse leaders, in a bid to strengthen leaders' and nurses' work-related well-being (Hampton & Rayens, 2019).…”

“…Continuous leadership training ensures that the challenges which nurse leaders experience are in line with their competences, that is, providing constructive feedback. Organizations should ensure that leaders in every organizational level employ transformational leadership, as well as enhance structural empowerment among nurse leaders, in a bid to strengthen leaders' and nurses' work‐related well‐being (Hampton & Rayens, 2019 ).…”

“…Organizations can use the results of presented research to focus the assessment and development of the weaker areas of the leadership, for example feedback and support, to enhance their nurse leaders' work‐related well‐being. Organisations should invest in nurse leaders who can create empowering environments from the bottom to the top of the organisation (Hampton & Rayens, 2019 ; Laschinger et al, 2012 ). The organisational culture and practices should be supportive of both transformational and empowering leadership (Khan et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Furthermore, nurse leaders across all organisational levels face challenges with work–life balance (Kelly et al, 2019 ). They are exposed to stressful situations on a daily basis, which requires high levels of tolerance and resilience (Hampton & Rayens, 2019 ). This stress can—understandably—affect a leader's individual work‐related well‐being.…”