Effects of inclusive leadership on leader-member exchange and affective commitment among nurses

Objective To explore the effects of inclusive leadership on affective commitment of nurses and to test the mediating effect of leader-member exchange. Methods From November 2016 to December 2016, we investigated 293 nurses from two Class Ⅲ Grade A governmental hospitals of Harbin with the Inclusive Leadership Scale, Leader-member Exchange Scale and Affective Commitment Scale. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple hierarchical linear regression analysis were used to test the correlations and mediating effect among the variables. A total of 293 questionnaires were sent out and 251 valid questionnaires retained finally. Results Among 251 nurses, the scores of inclusive leadership scale, leader-member exchange scale and affective commitment scale were (5.283±1.184), (5.216±1.139) and (4.902±1.061) respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed that inclusive leadership had positive correlations with the leader-member exchange (r=0.771, P<0.01) and affective commitment (r=0.537, P<0.01); leader-member exchange had a positive correlation with affective commitment (r=0.543, P<0.01). Multiple hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that inclusive leadership had positive effects on leader-member exchange and affective commitment of nurses; leader-member exchange played a partial mediating role between them. Conclusions As a whole, the inclusiveness of nursing managers on nurses is in the upper level and the leader-member exchange of nurses has a high level. Inclusive leadership has positive correlations with the leader-member exchange and affective commitment of nurses. Nursing managers should lead nurses to contribute their wisdoms with the manner of inclusive leadership so as to provide the high quality of nursing service. Key words: Nurses; Inclusive leadership; Leader-member exchange; Affective commitment