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The purpose of this paper is to compare the perceived transformational leadership practices of charge and staff nurses. Transformational leadership is effective in promoting change in organisations, with the leader guiding followers towards a common vision.

A quantitative, descriptive, comparative survey design was used. All charge nurses (N = 151) and staff nurses (N = 1,950) in six health entities in Malta were included. A mixed mode survey design was used. Data were collected using the Leadership Practices Inventory and analysed using ANOVA and the Kruskal–Wallis test.

An overall response rate of 15% (n = 315) was achieved. Both staff and charge nurses perceived transformational leadership to be practiced. Charge nurses scored consistently higher than staff nurses. In long-term care environments, charge nurses are more likely to “model the way”, while in acute settings, they were more likely to “enable others to act”.

Transformational leadership appears to be applied by charge nurses in Malta. The response rate achieved was low and may limit the generalisability of the results of the study.

Nurse managers need to adapt their transformational leadership style based on the context in which they work.

Regular feedback from nursing staff should be sought for charge nurses to be aware of the extent to which they are implementing transformational leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between perceived distributed leadership and job satisfaction among nurses. Leadership is central to improving quality care. Reports following investigations of poor care standards, identified inadequate leadership as a contributory factor and called for a new kind of leadership. One alternative is distributed leadership. Evidence suggests associations between leadership and job satisfaction but, there is a paucity of research examining associations between distributed leadership and job satisfaction: the purpose of this study was to address this gap.

A cross-sectional survey design was used and data collected via questionnaires. Using census sampling, 350 nurses in a hospital in Malta were selected. A response rate of 50% (n = 176) was achieved. Data were analysed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Ethical approval was obtained from relevant committees/individuals.

Results indicated a moderate application of perceived distributed leadership and application of all components of distributed leadership could be improved. Nurses were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their jobs. Correlation analysis showed a positive relationship between distributed leadership and job satisfaction. Multiple regression showed that commitment and participative decision-making were major predictors of job satisfaction while supervision by managers had a negative effect.

Improving distributed leadership is a priority in the nursing profession.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to show that distributed leadership has a positive effect on job satisfaction among nurses. Supervision, a constituent of distributed leadership, was associated with reduced job satisfaction, therefore reducing this is paramount.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse why Malta continues to show the highest level of turnout for European Parliament (EP) elections in a country where voting is not obligatory. By analysing the Maltese EP elections from 2004 to 2019, the paper seeks to understand why the Maltese engage with a second order election to the degree that they do.

The paper is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, first assessing the context of the 2019 elections, the historical trends and then the factors that help explain why the Maltese continue to engage with EP elections.

The paper finds that the Maltese political system, highly polarised and dominated by two parties, primarily galvanises people to engage with elections, that it is more about party leadership than actual engagement with Europe and that second order elections in Malta are often run as first order elections.

This paper is the only systematic evaluation of the 2019 EP elections in Malta, discusses categorically that EP elections are rarely about Europe while also showing clearly that political parties can make second-order elections appear as first-order elections should the stakes be high enough.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on the relational dimension of a networked business incubator (NBI), by investigating the intermediary role of incubator management in fostering social and business ties linking tenants among each other, with the incubator management and external actors.

The paper offers a literature review on the NBIs and advances a comprehensive analytical framework of the networked incubation model. This framework is empirically illustrated through a case study research on a leading Italian private NBI, namely, H-Farm. The collection of primary data was conducted by means of face-to-face in-depth interviews and a survey. Data were processed through social network analysis (SNA) tools.

The results highlight the co-presence and interaction of social and business ties, which build up a vital environment nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Community-based relationships and the intermediation of incubator management are crucial for supporting tenants in product and business development activities.

These results pave the way to further research, oriented to the conceptualization of a NBI as a (small) cluster. Moreover, the application of the SNA tools adopted invites further research on networked incubators, applying the same methodology in new directions.

This paper adds to previous literature on NBIs by providing evidence of the intermediary role of incubator management in promoting and facilitating social and business relationships occurring among tenants, between tenants and the incubator management, as well as with external advisors, clients and suppliers.