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Authentic leadership – an antecedent for contextual performance of Indian nurses

Nishtha Malik (Department of Management, Quantum University, Haridwar, India)

Personnel Review

ISSN: 0048-3486

Article publication date: 26 June 2018

Issue publication date: 21 August 2018

1645

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership and contextual performance of nursing staff while considering the mediating effect of psychological capital and moderating effect of autonomy on this association.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered from 41 small and medium-sized hospitals situated in the state of Uttarakhand, India. The sample for the study included 530 nurses and their 146 supervisors. Process macro (Hayes) was used to examine the influence of authentic leadership on contextual performance and the mediating effect of psychological capital and moderating role of autonomy in the relationship between authentic leadership and contextual performance.

Findings

Results indicate that authentic leadership is positively linked to contextual performance of nurses. Furthermore, psychological capital is found to mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and contextual performance while autonomy acts as a moderator between psychological capital and contextual performance.

Practical implications

Findings of this investigation would help healthcare managers to understand the importance of developing the psychological capital of healthcare workers. The paper draws attention of hospital administrators toward the need for setting up an appropriate environment wherein nurses are given a certain degree of autonomy to perform their task more effectively. This study also highlights the importance of an effective leadership style, namely authentic leadership in influencing contextual performance in service-oriented organizations such as healthcare institutions, as investigated in this study.

Originality/value

While extensive literature is available on authentic leadership and its impact on followers’ behavior, very little work seems to have been done to show a linkage between authentic leadership and contextual performance, especially in the context of nurses in developing country such as India. This work, therefore, may be considered original and of significant value in understanding the relationships between the various constructs in the Indian scenario.

Keywords

Citation

Malik, N. (2018), "Authentic leadership – an antecedent for contextual performance of Indian nurses", Personnel Review, Vol. 47 No. 6, pp. 1244-1260. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2016-0168

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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