Heather K. Spence Laschinger, RN, PhD

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The Effects of Leader Empowering Behaviours on
Staff Nurses Empowerment and Work Engagement
CHSRF Researcher-on-Call January 15, 2008
Heather K. Spence Laschinger, RN, PhD Professor
and Associate Director Nursing Research School of
Nursing, The University of Western
Ontario London, Ontario, Canada Paula Greco, RN,
BScN, MScN (candidate) School of Nursing,
University of Western Ontario Carol A. Wong,
RN, BScN, PHD(c) Assistant Professor School of
Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences The
University of Western Ontario
Funded by RNAO-Nursing Research Interest Group
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Background and Rationale for Study

• Health care restructuring changed the working
  conditions of Canadas registered nurses (Burke,
  2003a Burke, 2003b Laschinger, Finegan,
  Shamian, 2001)
• Managers positions cut making nursing leadership
  less visible (Laschinger Wong, 2007)
• Nurses workloads increased, more overtime hours
  (OBrien-Pallas et al., 2004)
• Negative effects on nurses health increased
  absenteeism, job insecurity, job stress, job
  dissatisfaction (Shamian, OBrien-Pallas,
  Thomson et al., 2003 Wong, 1999).
• Stress major cause of burnout job
  person-mismatch and low work engagement (Leiter
  Maslach, 1999 Maslach, Schaufeli, Leiter,
  1997 Shaufeli Bakker, 2004)
• Recruitment and retention problematic an
  enormous issue with current nursing shortage
  (Laschinger, Finegan, Shamian, Wilk, 2003)
• Leaders need to employ behaviours that promote
  workplace empowerment, and engaged workforce that
  prevents burnout and turnover (Conger Kanungo,
  1988 Kanter, 1977, 1993 Laschinger et al.,1999)

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Model Tested in This Study
Purpose To test Kanters work empowerment by
examining the relationships between nurse leader
empowering behaviours, perceptions of staff nurse
empowerment, fit with six areas of worklife, and
work engagement/burnout
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Structural Empowerment - Work structures that
enable employees to accomplish their work in
meaningful ways
Opportunity a sense of challenge and the chance
to learn and grow.
Information data, knowledge and expertise, and
awareness of organizational goals.
Support feedback and guidance received from
superiors, peers and subordinates.
Resources time, supplies, and equipment to
accomplish organizational goals.
Formal Power jobs that afford flexibility and
visibility, and that are relevant to key
organizational processes.
Informal Power network of alliances with
sponsors, peers and subordinates within and
outside organization.
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Leader Empowering Behaviors (Conger Kanungo,
1988 Hui, 1994)

• Enhancing the Meaningfulness of Work
• --leader behaviours extend both purpose
  and meaning on employee work
• Fostering Participation in Decision Making
• --concerted effort by leaders to seek
  employee input in decision-making process
• Facilitating Goal Accomplishment
• --maximizing talents and resources for effective
  performance
• Expressing Confidence in High Performance
• --display belief in employees aptitude,
  specifically at high level
• Providing Autonomy from Bureaucratic Constraints
• --work autonomy with less focus on bureaucratic
  rules and restrictions

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Suggest that work engagement/burnout is a
consequence of the degree of fit (or mismatch)
between employees and work environments.
Workload-the work demands of an employee given a
specified amount of time and resources.
Workload
Control-related to involvement in decision-making
and exercising autonomy.
Control
Rewards-recognition for work contributions (e.g.
monetary, social or intrinsic).
Rewards
Community-related to the quality of social
interactions in the workplace.
Community
Fairness-trust and respect demonstrated by the
organization in relation to decision-making
processes.
Fairness
Values-congruence between organizational
priorities and values of the employee.
Values
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Work Engagement/Burnout

• Maslach Leiter (1997) argue that work
  engagement and burnout are opposite ends of a
  continuum.
• Engaged employees have
• greater energy, involvement and efficacy.
• Burned out employees have
• greater exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy.

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Methods
Design Cross-sectional correlational survey
study Data Collection Mail surveys using
Dillman approach Fall 2004 Sample Random
sample selected from provincial registry list
RNs employed as staff nurses in Ontario acute
care hospitals RNs N 322 Return rate 69
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Path Analysis
Leader Empowering Behaviours
Emotional Exhaustion
. 71
-. 54
Structural Empowerment
Total Fit with 6 Areas of Worklife
. 67
?230.4 df3 GFI.96 CFI.95 IFI.95
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Conclusions

• Leader Empowering Behaviours are important in
  creating empowering work environments that
  increase engagement and lower burnout.
• Nurse managers who do what they can to provide
  staff with
• meaningful work,
• the chance to participate in decision-making,
• make goals achievable,
• express high confidence in employees
• minimize restrictions
• Are more likely to
• Increase access to information, support,
  resources, opportunities, job flexibility and
  strong alliances
• Promote better fit between the employee and their
  job
• Increase the likelihood that employees will
  remain engaged with their work
• Leaders play an important role in creating
  healthy work environments