A Study Of The Mechanisms Of Servant Leadership On Nursing Team Performance

Objectives: To construct a quantitative relationship model between servant leadership,nurses’ voice behaviour,workplace fun and nursing team performance,explore the path relationship between the above variables,and explore the specific application of quantitative research results in nursing management practice through qualitative interview,in order to provide reference for the establishment of high performance nursing team.Methods: A mixed research design with a quantitative study as the primary study and a qualitative study as the secondary study was used.The quantitative study was conducted using a questionnaire consisting of demographic data,Servant Leadership Scale,Nurses’ Voice Behaviour Scale,Team Performance Scale,and Workplace Fun Scale to survey clinical nurses in five tertiary public hospitals in Sichuan Province to develop a structural equation model to verify the research hypotheses.Qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 11 nursing managers from the questionnaire research hospitals to propose management initiatives to improve nursing team performance around quantitative results.Results: Quantitative study results: A total of 771 nurses participated in this study.The score of nurses’ perception of servant leadership was 4.279±0.663,the score of nurses’ voice behavior was 3.897±0.793,the score of nursing team performance was 4.332±0.589,and the score of workplace fun was 4.069±0.637,all of which were at a high level.The four main variables involved in this study had no significant differences in gender and education level(P > 0.05),but had significant differences in monthly income(P < 0.05).Nurses’ voice behavior and/or nursing team performance had significant differences in employment style,age,nursing age,professional title,marital status and departments(P < 0.05).There were significant differences in workplace fun among departments(P < 0.05).Servant leadership positively affected nursing team performance,and the effect value was 0.637(BC95%CI [0.553,0.712],P < 0.001).Nurses’ voice behavior partially mediated the relationship between servant leadership and nursing team performance,accounting for27%,with an effect value of 0.235(BC 95%CI [0.189,0.285],P < 0.001).The higher the level of workplace fun,the stronger the positive effect of servant leadership on nurses’ voice behavior,the effect value was 0.478(BC 95%CI [0.301,0.751],P <0.001),and the stronger the mediating effect of nurses’ voice behavior was,the effect value was 0.285(BC 95%CI [0.814,0.442],P < 0.001).Qualitative interview results:A total of 11 nursing managers were interviewed.Nine themes were separated from three aspects,four themes were suggestions on shaping the service-oriented leadership style;Ways and approaches to promote nurse voice behavior,three themes;Creating Fun workplaces,two themes.Conclusions: Nursing team performance was at a high level;servant leadership positively influenced nursing team performance;nurses’ voice behaviour partially mediated this;workplace fun positively moderated the relationship between servant leadership and nurses’ voice behaviour and further positively moderated the mediating role of nurses’ voice behaviour.To create high performance nursing teams,nursing managers should be encouraged to develop their own servant leadership qualities,promote positive nurse voice and create a fun work environment,but the type of activities and organization should focus on providing nurses with fun that is appropriate to the nature of their work.