The Effect of Paternalist Leadership on Work Engagement: A Research on Health Workers

The aim of this study was to determine whether paternalistic leadership behavior shown by health managers has an effect on work engagement behavior of health workers. A total of 410 volunteer health workers participated in this study. In this study, paternalistic leadership scale and work engagement scale (UWES-TR) were used. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) program was used for the analysis of the data obtained as a result of the survey application and descriptive statistical methods were used. Correlation Analysis and Simple Linear Regression Analysis were used to examine the relationship between the measured variables. As a result of the study, it was found that paternalist leadership had a positively and medium level effect on work engagement behavior. In addition, in this study, it was found that paternalist leadership had a positively effect on all dimensions of work engagement. As a result, it can be said that paternalist leadership can be an effective leadership model in health sector in terms of work engagement. Health managers can demonstrate paternalistic leadership behavior and enable healthcare workers to exhibit more work engagement behavior. There are not many studies investigating the relationship between paternalistic leadership and work engagement. This study investigated the influence of paternalistic leadership on work engagement of health workers is the first study in Turkey.