The effect of perceived organizational support, empowering leadership and learning organization on Greek psychiatric nurses’ employee resilience: a cross-sectional study

What the paper says

Purpose The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of employee resilience and possible determinants, as well as to assess the effects of the perceived organizational support, the empowering leadership and the dimensions of learning organization on employee resilience of the psychiatric nurses in Greece. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional correlational research was conducted via a stratified random sampling method. Participants were recruited from three Greek tertiary public psychiatric hospitals, from January 9 to March 18, 2022. Psychiatric nurses (n = 328) from acute care inpatient settings completed the Employee Resilience Scale, the Perceived Organizational Support Scale, the Empowering Leadership Scale, the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire and General Information Questionnaire. Descriptive analyses, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-tests, Pearson’s correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Findings Psychiatric nurses reported moderate levels of employee resilience. All study variables showed a significant positive correlation with employee resilience. Multiple regression analysis revealed that perceived organizational support and empowering leadership significantly predicted employee resilience. Among the subscales of learning organization, team learning, inquiry-dialogue and strategic leadership were significant predictors of employee resilience. Notably, strategic leadership had a negative impact on resilience. The model explained 49.2% of the variance in employee resilience. Research limitations/implications The study highlights key limitations, underscores the need for organizational and policy-level interventions to enhance psychiatric nurses’ resilience and emphasizes practical strategies such as leadership development, resilience training and systemic support to foster a sustainable and adaptive workforce. Practical implications Nursing administration and psychiatric healthcare organizations may benefit from the findings and practice recommendations of this study to enhance organizational support, empowerment and a learning-oriented environment to build employee resilience. Implementing specific educational and training programs aimed at developing resilience and fostering a positive work attitude, such as collaborative work training and support-seeking strategies, can help psychiatric nurses in their adaptation and flourishment in a highly demanding environment. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first nationwide Greek study to measure the prevalence of employee resilience among psychiatric nurses and its predictors in their workplace. Furthermore, the results indicate era timely opportunity for mental health care administrators to strengthen their organizational infrastructure by providing job resources to protect psychiatric nurses dealing with setbacks, thriving at the workplace and ensuring the provision of quality care.