Authentic Leadership and Moral Intelligence of Nurses in Kerman University of Medical Sciences Hospitals

Background and Aim: This study was conducted due to the increasing importance of ethics in providing nursing care and also due to the role of nurses' moral intelligence in quality of care; meanwhile, the role of authentic leadership (AL) in enhancing the moral intelligence of nurses working in Kerman University of Medical Sciences hospitals was investigated. Materials and Methods: This is a mixed methods research. In this study, after defining nurses’ moral intelligence model qualitatively, the relationship between nurses’ moral intelligence and authentic leadership (AL) was tested quantitatively. In order to study authentic leadership, the AL standard questionnaire of Walumbwa & et al (2008) with a reliability of 0.917 was used; moreover, a researcher-made questionnaire was used for investigating moral intelligence with overall validity (81%) and reliability (0.961). The statistical population of the study consisted of 400 hospital nurses selected by stratified sampling method. SPSS20 and Amos24 software, and statistical methods of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis as well as structural equation modeling were used to analyze the research hypotheses.  Results: The results showed a positive and significant relationship between AL and moral intelligence of nurses (0.575). In addition, all components of AL, i. e., self-awareness (0.322), internalized moral perspective (0.360), relational transparency (0.408), balanced processing (0.394) showed a positive and significant relationship with moral intelligence. Conclusion: Applying suitable strategies for enhancing moral intelligence of nurses and improving the quality of nursing care can have a positive effect on the quality of services. The AL in the hospitals' nursing system is one of the most suitable ways for developing the moral intelligence of nurses.