The ethical leadership of the nursing ward managers as a key determinant of nurses' organisational behaviours in the healthcare settings

Aim: The main aim of this study is to examine the influence of the coordinator's ethical leadership on nurses' emotions (i.e., positive and negative) and work behaviours. Method: A questionnaire was administered in paper format, including well-validated scales reported in literature, to a sample of 347 nurses working in a university hospital. A structural equation model has been tested after examining Pearson's correlations among study variables. Results: The coordinator's ethical leadership is strongly related to the implementation of nurses' organisational citizenship behaviour and counterproductive work behaviour, which are influenced by their emotions. Positive emotions fully mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour, while negative emotions partially mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and counterproductive work behaviour. Conclusions: Ethical leadership acts on nurses' organisational behaviour, as described in the modelling process. The nurses' organisational behaviour is crucial to the outcome of the health care service. Therefore, the ethical leadership indirectly affects the quality of the care and the cure offered to the patients.