Transformational leadership, emotional intelligence, and nurse work engagement in Indonesian public hospitals: the mediating role of psychological empowerment
摘要
This study examines factors associated with nurse work engagement in an Indonesian public hospital by integrating the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model with transformational leadership and emotional intelligence perspectives. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 209 nurses at Konawe District General Hospital, and the data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicated significant positive paths from transformational leadership to work engagement (β = 0.408) and from emotional intelligence to work engagement (β = 0.258). Transformational leadership (β = 0.398) and emotional intelligence (β = 0.297) were also positively associated with psychological empowerment, which in turn was positively associated with work engagement (β = 0.361). Mediation analysis showed that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationships between transformational leadership and work engagement and between emotional intelligence and work engagement, because both direct and indirect paths remained significant. The model accounted for 74.2% of the variance in work engagement and 44.0% of the variance in psychological empowerment, while the moderating effects of work experience and gender were not statistically significant. These findings suggest that job-related and personal resources may be relevant to nurse engagement through psychological empowerment in similar public hospital contexts. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously because the study used a cross-sectional, self-reported design and was conducted in a single hospital.