Relationship between transformational leadership and nurses’ job performance: The mediating effect of psychological safety

Rapid changes in the healthcare environment necessitate improvements in employee performance. We examined the relationship between nurse managers’ transformational leadership and nurses’ job performance, and the key mediating role of psychological safety in this relationship. Personnel at six private regional teaching hospitals in Central Taiwan participated in this study, comprising 73 nurse managers and 719 nurses. The results show that when the intergroup heterogeneity of job performance was statistically significant, a positive correlation existed between transformational leadership and job performance at the group level. Next, we performed an analysis using psychological safety as a mediating variable. The results show there was a significant correlation between transformational leadership and perception of psychological safety. This model exhibited lower variance and a better fit than the other examined models. Thus, emphasizing transformational leadership and psychological safety in operations and management could effectively improve nurses’ job performance; this recommendation could serve as a standard for nurse managers in their duties.