The relationship between toxic leadership and organizational performance: the mediating effect of nurses’ silence

AIMS: To assess toxic leadership and organizational performance among nurses of a University Hospital, and explore the mediating effect of nurses ‘silence. BACKGROUND: Toxic Leadership behaviours are hurtful to feelings, leading to emotive fatigue and nurses silence within the legislative framework. In fact, it is very harmful to all organizations. However, little emphasis has been paid to research on the mediating mechanism and border factors of their connection. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was applied. Data was collected from 750 nurses over the course of three months. The researchers employed structured equation modeling [SEM] to investigate the role of nurses’ silence in mediating the association between toxic leadership and organizational performance. RESULTS: The toxic leadership level and Organisational performance level were both high. In addition to, the nurses’ silence level was moderate. The SEM revealed that toxic Leadership accounted for the prediction of 65% of the variance of nurses’ silence and 87% of the variance of organizational performance. Also, nurses silence as a mediating factor accounted for 73% of the variance of organizational performance. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasized on the importance of creating a work environment that encourages and promotes open communication, as well as eliminating toxic leadership behaviours from the organizational culture among nurses as it effects on the organizational performance.