ABSTRACT
Meaningful work is an important field of research, relating to both organizational outcomes and employee welfare. Organizational democracy has been theoretically proposed as an important antecedent to meaningful work. Nevertheless, this relationship is yet to be empirically explored. Thus, the objective of the current research is to explore the relationship between organizational democracy and meaningful work. We used structural equation modeling with self-reported, cross-sectional data from different nations and industries to test a mediation model in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions mediate the positive relationship between organizational democracy and meaningful work. Our findings confirmed that CSR perceptions partially mediate in the relationship between organizational democracy and meaningful work. Thus, based on our findings we can conclude that organizational democracy can play a direct role in increasing the experience of meaningful work, but also an indirect role trough the employees experience of CSR. Our findings have theoretical implications by adding to the classical theoretical literature that connect organizational democracy and meaningful work, and by disentangling the role of CSR perceptions in this relationship. Moreover, our findings have practical implications as our results give important knowledge to managers and organizational stakeholders that wish to increase the experience of meaningful work in organizations.
ABSTRACT
AIM: The purpose of the study was to introduce the concept of distributed leadership to international nursing management by conducting a cross-national investigation of its relationships with empowering nursing leadership, nurses' work self-efficacy and nurses' innovative behaviour. BACKGROUND: Distributed leadership theory suggests that when more people lead processes together, innovation will be superior to solo leadership. However, we need knowledge about how nurse managers may enhance nurses' distributed leadership agency (DLA), and whether such results are generalizable across countries. METHOD: The cross-national survey with an overall purposeful sampling method used questionnaire data from hospital nurses from Israel (n = 239), Italy (n = 226) and Denmark (n = 709). We used validated scales measuring Empowering Leadership, Self-efficacy, Innovative Work Behavior and DLA. RESULTS: The results from all three countries showed that empowering leadership and work self-efficacy were positively related to DLA, which, in turn, was also related to more innovation. CONCLUSION: The results may imply that nursing managers can increase workplace innovativeness by adopting an empowering leadership style that supports nurses' self-efficacy and distributes leadership tasks. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The cross-country robustness of the results may encourage further research in distributed leadership in nurse management, notably with a focus on causal mechanisms.
