Creating healthy environments for nurse practice: How authentic leaders foster personal and professional well-being

<p>Stephanie Austin</p>

Creating healthy environments for nurse practice: How authentic leaders foster personal and professional well-being

Stephanie Austin

University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Canada

: J Nurs Patient Care

Abstract

Research emphasizes the importance of leaders’ behavior in creating healthier work environments that support employees’ development and well-being (Ilies et al., 2005). Authentic leadership (AL; Luthans & Avolio, 2003) reflects self-awareness and self-regulation of positive behaviors that entice transparency, trust, openness, and guidance in the leader/follower relationship (Gardner et al., 2005; Harter, 2002). Although a lot of research is available regarding how authentic leaders contribute to creating healthy work environments for their employees, the literature is scarce about how their behaviors contribute to their psychological well-being beyond the workplace. In the nurse practice, Work-Life Balance (WLB) represents a major challenge for many employees as the nature of their job regularly makes them put their patients’ needs before their own, as well as before the ones of their families. Atypical schedules and compulsory overtime are other examples of factors in the nurse practice that can undermine employees’ worklife balance, personal and professional well-being. The present studies draw from AL and WLB literature to examine how perceived authentic behaviors from supervisors can help nurses to balance more adequately their work and personal lives, and ultimately, preserve or increase both personal and professional well-being. Specifically, we propose that nurses' perception of their supervisor's authentic leadership practices is positively associated with work-life balance, which promotes job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Data were collected from 364 registered nurses (88% women). The results of structural equation modeling support the proposed model and thus contribute to an improved understanding of how AL extends beyond the workplace. The theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in the light of AL theory (Avolio et al., 2017) and the work-life balance literature.