Serial-multiple mediation of transformational and clinical leadership in the relationship between work overload and quality of work life among nurses: A Job Demands-Resources Framework

Background: Nurses' quality of work life is a crucial factor in nurse, patient and organisational outcomes. Because work overload and leadership affect quality of work life, it is important to understand the re-lationship between them.Aim: The aims of this study were to investigate the serial multiple mediation of transformational and clinical leadership in the relationship between work overload and quality of life among clinical nurses and to test a model designed to examine the fit and relations between these variables.Methods: This study used a model-testing design with cross-sectional data. The sample consisted of 415 clinical nurses working in hospitals in Turkey. A questionnaire was used to collect data between August and September 2021. Data were analysed using descriptive and correlation analyses. Data analyses included model-testing approaches and were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 26.0, Hayes' PROCESS macro for SPSS v4.0, and Analysis of Moment Structures 24.0.Findings: The serial-multiple mediation of transformational leadership perception and clinical leadership skills in the relationship between work overload and quality of work life was found to be statistically significant. The model fit indices were desirable. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that decreased work overload perception was associated first with increased perception of transformational leadership, followed by increased clinical leadership skills, which in turn was related to increased quality of work life among clinical nurses.& COPY; 2023 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd.