How and why strengths-based leadership relates to nurses’ turnover intention: the roles of job crafting and work fatigue

Purpose This study investigated the relationship of strengths-based leadership with nurses’ turnover intention and the mediating roles of job crafting and work fatigue in the relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data comprising 318 valid participants from three hospitals in Beijing were gathered at two points in time, spaced by a two-month interval. Structural equation modeling with a bootstrapping analysis was applied to test hypotheses. Findings This study found that strengths-based leadership negatively relates to nurses’ turnover intention, and job crafting and work fatigue mediate the relationship of strengths-based leadership with turnover intention, respectively. Originality/value The findings of this study highlight the importance of strengths-based leadership in decreasing nurses’ turnover intention and reveal two potential mechanisms through which strengths-based leadership is related to nurses’ turnover intention. In order to retain nursing staff better, nurse leaders should execute more strengths-based leadership behaviors and make more efforts to promote nurses’ job crafting and to reduce nurses’ experience of work fatigue.