Be CIVIL: Committing to zero tolerance for workplace incivility

Interventions for Preventing and Resolving Bullying in Nursing: A Scoping Review

Bullying in the workplace is a serious problem in nursing and has an impact on the well-being of teams, patients, and organisations. This study's aim is to map possible interventions designed to prevent or resolve bullying in nursing. A scoping review of primary research published in English and Italian between 2011 and 2021 was undertaken from four databases (Cochrane Collaboration, PubMed, CINAHL Complete, and PsycInfo). The data were analysed using Arksey and O'Malley's framework, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist was followed to report the study. Fourteen papers met the review eligibility criteria. The analysis revealed four main themes: educational interventions, cognitive rehearsal, team building, and nursing leaders' experiences. Interventions enabled nurses to recognise bullying and address it with assertive communication. Further research is needed to demonstrate these interventions' effectiveness and if they lead to a significant decrease in the short-/long-term frequency of these issues. This review increases the available knowledge and guides nurse leaders in choosing effective interventions. Eradicating this phenomenon from healthcare settings involves active engagement of nurses, regardless of their role, in addition to support from the nurse leaders, the organisations, and professional and health policies.

Nursing Leaders' Knowledge and Awareness of Bullying and Lateral Violence: A Qualitative Study

Introduction

Bullying and lateral violence are prevalent phenomena within the nursing profession, exerting significant impacts on patient safety, the nursing profession and the organisation. The pivotal role of nurse leaders is paramount in both the prevention and resolution of these issues.

Aim

The aim is to explore the level of awareness and knowledge of bullying and lateral violence of nurse leaders in a public hospital in Switzerland.

Methods

A qualitative descriptive study has been conducted. Data were collected from February to August 2020 using semi-structured interviews and focus groups that were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Two researchers independently utilised Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis to code, categorise and synthesise the data. The sample of nursing middle-management leaders was purposive.

Results

The study involved 35 nurse leaders as participants. Through data analysis, 15 themes were identified, which were further grouped into five major themes: characteristics of the phenomena, facilitating and hindering factors, emotions/experiences, strategies and supports. The results highlighted that nurse leaders may have a lack of knowledge about these phenomena, leading to challenges in their identification. The awareness achieved by the nurse leaders highlighted their need to understand what they were 'fighting against'.

Conclusion

It is essential to consider the impact of these phenomena on employees' well-being and their potential consequences for patient safety, quality of care and financial performance. A preventive approach by increasing nurse leaders' competence in observing everyday working realities and identifying strategies for addressing bullying is required. Further research on the construction and implementation of specific interventions is essential, aimed at preventing and addressing these phenomena comprehensively.

The relationship between toxic leadership and organizational performance: the mediating effect of nurses' silence

AIMS

To assess toxic leadership and organizational performance among nurses of a University Hospital, and explore the mediating effect of nurses 'silence.

BACKGROUND

Toxic Leadership behaviours are hurtful to feelings, leading to emotive fatigue and nurses silence within the legislative framework. In fact, it is very harmful to all organizations. However, little emphasis has been paid to research on the mediating mechanism and border factors of their connection.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was applied. Data was collected from 750 nurses over the course of three months. The researchers employed structured equation modeling [SEM] to investigate the role of nurses' silence in mediating the association between toxic leadership and organizational performance.

RESULTS

The toxic leadership level and Organisational performance level were both high. In addition to, the nurses' silence level was moderate. The SEM revealed that toxic Leadership accounted for the prediction of 65% of the variance of nurses' silence and 87% of the variance of organizational performance. Also, nurses silence as a mediating factor accounted for 73% of the variance of organizational performance.

CONCLUSIONS

This study emphasized on the importance of creating a work environment that encourages and promotes open communication, as well as eliminating toxic leadership behaviours from the organizational culture among nurses as it effects on the organizational performance.

Antecedents and consequences of knowledge sabotage in the Turkish telecommunication and retail sectors

Purpose

This study aims to propose and test a model explicating the antecedents and consequences of knowledge sabotage.

Design/methodology/approach

Data obtained from 330 employees working in the Turkish retail and telecommunication sectors were analyzed by means of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling technique.

Findings

Co-worker knowledge sabotage is the key factor driving knowledge sabotage behavior of individual employees, followed by co-worker incivility. Interactional justice suppresses individual knowledge sabotage, while supervisor incivility does not affect it. Co-worker knowledge sabotage reduces job satisfaction of other employees, which, in turn, triggers their voluntary turnover intention. Contrary to a popular belief that perpetrators generally benefit from their organizational misbehavior, the findings indicate that knowledge saboteurs suffer from the consequences of their action because they find it mentally difficult to stay in their current organization. Employees understate their own knowledge sabotage engagement and/or overstate that of others.

Practical implications

Managers should realize that interactional justice is an important mechanism that can thwart knowledge sabotage behavior, promote a civil organizational culture, develop proactive approaches to reduce co-worker incivility and strive towards a zero rate of knowledge sabotage incidents in their organizations. Co-worker incivility and co-worker knowledge sabotage in the workplace are possible inhibitors of intraorganizational knowledge flows and are starting points for job dissatisfaction, which may increase workers’ turnover intention.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to further our knowledge on the cognitive mechanisms linking interactional justice and uncivil organizational behavior with knowledge sabotage and employee outcomes.

Influence of nurse managers' toxic leadership behaviours on nurse-reported adverse events and quality of care

AIM

To assess the impact of toxic leadership behaviours among nurse managers on nurse-reported adverse events and quality of care.

BACKGROUND

Toxic leadership, a form of ineffective leadership, is increasingly becoming rampant in the field of nursing and has been strongly linked to poor nurse job outcomes including job dissatisfaction, higher stress levels, and increased turnover intention. To date, no studies have been conducted to examine how this type of leadership behaviours affects patient outcomes and care quality.

METHODS

A multicentre, cross-sectional study. This study involved a sample of 1,053 registered nurses working in 20 hospitals in the Philippines. Three standardized scales were deployed, including the Toxic Leadership Behaviors of Nurse Managers Scale, the Adverse Patient Events Scale and the single-item quality-of-care-measure.

RESULTS

Overall, nurses (96.2%) appraised the quality of care of their respective units as 'good to excellent' and cited complaints from patients and their families as the most commonly reported adverse events. Toxic leadership behaviours in nurse managers were strongly associated with increased nurse-reported adverse events including reports of complaints (β = .619; p < .001) and verbal mistreatment from patients and their families (β = .407; p < .001), patient falls (β = .834; p < .001), health care-associated infections (β = .629; p < .001) and errors in administering medication (β = .708; p < .001) and with decreased quality of care (β = -.216; p < .001).

CONCLUSION

Nurses who experience working under a nurse manager exhibiting toxic behaviours reported an increased frequency of nurse-reported adverse events and poorer quality of care in the unit.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Organizational measure to reduce the occurrence of adverse events and enhance the quality of care provided in medical units may include intervention to develop positive leadership practices among nurse managers.