Investigating the relationship between nurses' workplace behaviour and perceived levels of ethical leadership in managers.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing research interest in the relationship between ethical leadership and deviant workplace behaviour. Ethical leadership encompasses altruism, courage, ethical orientation, integrity and fairness. Examples of deviant workplace behaviours include theft, fraud, sabotage, assault, abuse, manipulation and bullying. It appears that when leaders are fair and emphasise ethical conduct, followers are less inclined to engage in deviant workplace behaviour.

AIM: To investigate the relationship between nurses' self-rated levels of deviant workplace behaviour and perceived levels of ethical leadership in managers.

METHOD: For this descriptive correlational study, 355 nurses from one university hospital in Egypt responded to an online questionnaire comprising the Ethical Leadership Scale and the Workplace Deviance Behavior Scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to explore results and examine the relationships between study variables.

RESULTS: There was a statistically significant negative relationship between respondents' self-rated levels of deviant workplace behaviour and their perceptions of levels of ethical leadership in managers. The results appeared to confirm previous research. Nurses who feel that they are treated fairly by their managers tend to have positive attitudes towards work, colleagues and management.

CONCLUSION: Ethical leadership on the part of managers is a significant determinant of nurses' behaviour in the workplace and should therefore be fostered by healthcare organisations.