Leadership Styles of Nurse Managers and Employees' Organizational Commitment during the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the leadership styles of nurse managers and then determine the relationship of the respective styles with the organizational commitment of the nurse managers during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A quantitative correlational study design was employed in this investigation. Simple random sampling yielded 259 nurses who participated in this study. It was conducted between October and November 2021 at the government hospitals of the Hail Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: The nurses' perceived that their nurse managers employed an idealized influence leadership style (9.15). Age, years of experience, and ward assignment were found to have no statistically significant difference on organizational commitment; however, a significant difference was found with nationality. No significant difference was found regarding age with idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, or management by exception; however, it differed significantly with individualized consideration, contingent reward, and laissez-faire leadership. No significant differences were found with the years of experience to idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, or management by exception; however, it was found significantly different with the contingent reward and laissez-faire leadership. Concerning nationality, a significant difference was found with idealized influence and inspirational motivation. However, no significant difference was found between nationality and intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, contingent reward, management by exception, or laissez-faire leadership. With the ward assignment, no significant difference was found with idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, or contingent reward management by exception; however, a significant difference was found with individual consideration and laissez-faire leadership. CONCLUSION: During the pandemic, nurse managers employed idealized influence leadership styles. Age, years of experience, and ward assignment were found to be of no significant difference to organizational commitment, but they did have a significant difference to nationality. Age differed significantly with individualized consideration, contingent reward, and laissez-faire leadership. Years of experience was found to be significantly different with contingent reward and laissez-faire leadership. Concerning nationality, a significant difference was found with idealized influence and inspirational motivation. With the ward assignment, a significant difference was found with individual consideration and laissez-faire leadership.