How and When Does Inclusive Leadership Curb Psychological Distress During a Crisis? Evidence From the COVID-19 Outbreak

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Fawad Ahmed¹  Fuqiang Zhao¹  Naveed Ahmad Faraz¹ 

[1] School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology

关键词: inclusive leadership;    work engagement;    psychological distress;    self-sacrifice;    the COVID-19;    social exchange theory;    mental health;    health care workers;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01898

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Traumatic events such as a pandemic shatter the assumption of the workplace as a safe place. Nurses face risks of life-threatening infection, which can create psychological distress. Quality of care for infected patients depends on mental well-being of nurses which calls for research on predictors of stress among health care workers. Responding to a call for research on the effects of leadership styles on psychological distress during traumatic events, this paper uses the theoretical lens of social exchange theory and contributes to literature on relationships between inclusive leadership, psychological distress, work engagement, and self-sacrifice. Participants of this cross sectional study included 497 registered nurses from five hospitals in Wuhan. Data were collected with temporal separation through an online questionnaire. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze data. Results show inclusive leadership has a significant negative relationship with psychological distress. Work engagement mediates this relationship, and nurses’ self-sacrificial behavior moderates it. Findings indicate inclusive leadership style serves as a sustainable mechanism to reduce psychological distress during pandemics. It can operationalize the delivery of mental health support in real-time in work settings. Results provide empirical support for social exchange theory through high work engagement to help control psychological distress among nurses.

【 授权许可】

CC BY