Background and Objective
Ethical leadership is a form of leadership that requires the development of ethical standards to manage the behavior of employees and the effective implementation of ethical standards. Numerous studies have emphasized the importance of ethical leadership and its impact and consequences on organizations. The findings of previous studies indicated a relationship between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior, job motivation, job satisfaction, ethical climate, psychological empowerment, justice, organizational commitment, organizational burnout, and trust. Studies also indicated a relationship between ethical leadership and employee self-efficacy. Self-efficacy means a person’s beliefs about his or her ability to perform behaviors that will have certain consequences. Since nurses in intensive care units (ICUs) are responsible for providing specialized care to critically ill patients, providing high-quality and standard care in these wards is highly important. Individual self-efficacy of nurses in performing nursing practices, especially in ICUs can change their clinical and professional behaviors which ultimately leads to improved patient care, which is the main goal of the nursing profession. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership of nurses and demographic characteristics with the general self-efficacy of nurses working in the ICUs in Hamadan city, Iran.
Materials and Methods
This descriptive correlational study was conducted in 2019. The statistical population of the study included all nurses (n=540) working in ICUs of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran, from whom a total of 230 nurses were selected to participate in the study using the stratified-proportional sampling method. In this sampling method, the number of samples in each hospital is proportional to the number of nurses working in the ICU in the given hospital (Besat, n=198; Shahid Beheshti, n=115; Farshchian Heart, n=106; Farshchian (Sina), n=61; Fatemieh, n=60). To select the desired number of samples from the special ward of each hospital, a table of random numbers was used to select samples randomly according to a list of nurses names. Data collection was conducted using the general self-efficacy scale of Scherer and ethical nursing leadership questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) through descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results
The majority (72.2%) of nurses participating in this study were female and in the age range of 30-39 years. Most (87.8%) of the participants had a bachelor’s degree, of whom 96 (41.7%) had less than five years of work experience and 79 (34.3%) were official employees. The mean±SD scores of moral leadership characteristics and the total self-efficacy in head nurses were 64.53±19.19 and 63.93±9.07, respectively. There was no statistically significant relationship between the ethical leadership style and its components with the general self-efficacy of nurses (P>0.05). Considering the output of the artificial neural network, the normalized significance scores of the independent variables on the dependent variable were obtained at 100, 74.8, 56.2, 52, 47.6, 46.4, 38.1, 37.1, 27, and 13.3 for work experience, pioneering, task orientation, moralism, workplace, age, job status, gender, division of power, and education, respectively.
Conclusion
The study results showed no direct and significant relationship between ethical leadership and the general self-efficacy of nurses. However, the normalized significance scores of the independent variables on the dependent variable considering the output of the artificial neural network were calculated to be 74.8, 56.2, 52, and 27 for components of pioneer, task orientation, moralism, and division of power, respectively. However, nonlinear relationships may probably exist between these variables and self-efficacy. The results of other studies conducted on the relationship between ethical leadership and job self-efficacy in organizations showed a positive and significant relationship between the two variables which was in contrast with our results. This discrepancy in the results of different studies can be explained by the adoption of general self-efficacy rather than occupational self-efficacy in the present study. The results of the study performed by Zarezadeh et al. in Yazd, in 2021, showed a positive and significant correlation between dimensions of ethical leadership with the general self-efficacy of nurses. In the mentioned study, ethical leadership questionnaires of Brown et al. and general self-efficacy scales of Scherer and Jerusalem were used, which was different from the questionnaires used in the present study. Moreover, the difference in results can be due to the effect of different factors on general self-efficacy, such as social resources and different environmental factors. Although from the nurses’ point of view, the average score of ethical leadership in nurses was moderate to high, the lowest scores were obtained in the field of ethics, indicating the need for professional growth and development in this field. Considering the significant relationship between some demographic variables and the general self-efficacy of nurses, nursing managers are recommended to consider these variables, especially in retraining, to improve the general self-efficacy of nurses. It is also suggested that future studies identify and analyze other variables and factors that affect the general self-efficacy of nurses. On the other hand, due to the lack of a linear relationship between ethical leadership and the general self-efficacy of nurses, it is suggested that future studies consider the association between ethical leadership and job self-efficacy, clinical self-efficacy, and ethical self-efficacy in nurses.