The relationship between resilience and empowering leader behaviour of nurse managers in the mining health care centre

Abstract

The mining healthcare sector is faced with many challenges, including high levels of occupational injury and illness, high levels of non-occupational diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS, chronic diseases) and high staff turnover. Given the challenges in the mining healthcare sector, nurse managers have to create an environment that is optimal for the provision of nursing care by motivating, influencing and empowering nurses. It is therefore important for nurse managers to be resilient and to be able to display the leadership behaviour that empowers their subordinates. In light of limited research on resilience and empowering leader behaviour of nurse managers, specifically within the mining healthcare sector in South Africa, the aim of this study was to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the relationship between resilience and empowering leader behaviour of nurse managers in the mining healthcare sector. This was done by determining the resilience of nurse managers, determining the empowering leader behaviour of nurse managers and investigating the relationship between resilience and empowering leader behaviour of nurse managers in the mining healthcare sector. The study employed a quantitative, explorative, descriptive design to achieve the objectives of the study. The research population consisted of 31 nurse managers, 101 professional nurses, 79 enrolled nurses and 79 enrolled nursing auxiliaries: An all-inclusive sampling method was used to select the representative sample. Two questionnaires were used as data collection methods. The Resilience Scale questionnaire developed by Wagnild and Young (1990) was used to investigate the resilience of nurse managers in the mining healthcare sector. This questionnaire was completed by nurse managers. The Empowering Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) developed by Arnold et al. (2000) was used to measure empowering leader behaviour. The ELQ was completed by the nurses who are being supervised by a particular nurse manager. The results indicated that respondents had on average a moderate level of resilience. Eight nurse managers (8) had a low level of resilience, nineteen (19) had a moderate level of resilience, and four (4) had a high level. The results further showed that nurse managers are leading by example. They are coaching nurses and they involve nurses‟ input in decision making, the results further indicated that nurse iv managers showed concern for the well-being of the nurses in their team. It can thus be concluded that the nurse managers in this research displayed empowering leader behaviour There was no statistically or practically significant relationship between resilience and empowering leader behaviour, but there was a tendency for the respondents who have a high resilience to also have high leadership empowering behaviour. Recommendations for nursing practice include strengthening the resilience of nurse managers through workshops and reflection practices, debriefing and performance feedback sessions. The other recommendation was that the mining healthcare sector should foster empowerment strategies and these strategies should be taught to nurse managers. Recommendations for nursing education and further research were also formulated.