The influence of inclusive leadership on organizational performance and empowerment behavior of nurses

Objective To investigate the influence of inclusive leadership on organizational performance of nurses and to test the mediating role of empowerment behavior. Methods From November to December 2016, 293 nurses from 2 public hospitals in Harbin were investigated with Inclusive Leadership Scale, Empowerment Behavior Scale and Team Performance Scale. A total of 293 questionnaires were distributed and 251 questionnaires were effectively recovered. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear hierarchical regression analysis were performed to analyze and process data. Results The Score of Inclusive Leadership Scale, Empowerment Behavior Scale and Team Performance Scale was (5.28±1.184) , (5.25±1.216) and (5.71±1.233) respectively. Inclusive leadership had a positive correlation with empowerment behavior and organizational performance of nurses (r=0.742, 0.605; P<0.05) . In addition, there was a positive correlation between empowerment behavior and organizational performance of nursing staff (r=0.615, P<0.05) . Multivariate linear hierarchical regression analysis showed that inclusive leadership had a positive predictive effect on empowerment behavior and organizational performance, and empowerment behavior of nurses partially mediated between them. Conclusions Inclusive leadership can enhance subordinate nurses' high level of empowerment awareness, thereby directly or indirectly improving nursing organization performance. Key words: Nursing staff; Inclusive leadership; Empowerment behavior; Organizational performance