Servant leadership and clinical nurses’ work engagement: The mediating role of emotional support and frustration

AbstractThe present study aimed to investigate the influence of emotional support and frustration on the relationship between servant leadership and clinical nurses' work engagement. The survey sample consists of 1 127 clinical nurses from six hospitals in China (female = 1 081; average age = 32.78 years, SD = 6.40 years). The results indicate that servant leadership can predict higher clinical nurses' work engagement. Furthermore, emotional support and frustration mediated the relationship between servant leadership and clinical nurses' work engagement. Additionally, frustration mediated the relationship between emotional support and clinical nurses' work engagement. The research results provide evidence on the internal mechanism of the impact of servant leadership and clinical nurses' work engagement.Keywords: servant leadershipwork engagementemotional supportfrustration AcknowledgementsAcknowledgement is made of the Ministry of Education Industry Education Collaborative Education Project (202101237022), Key Project of Higher Education Teaching Reform Research and Practice in Henan Province (2021SJGLX179), Project of Higher Education Teaching Reform Research and Practice in Henan Province (2021SJGLX175Y), and the Education Research Project of the Teaching Guidance Committee for Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Majors in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education (2022-YB02).