Examining the relationship between the dark leadership characteristics of nurses' managers and their silent resignation behavior

In recent years, not only the positive aspects of leadership but also its negative impacts on employees and organizations have become the focus of research. Dark leadership encompasses leadership styles that harm employees and disrupt organizational functioning. It is thought that such leadership styles may lead to negative outcomes such as quiet quitting among employees. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between nurse managers' dark leadership characteristics and nurses' quiet quitting behaviors. The research was carried out with 217 nurses working in a public hospital, and data were collected using the "Dark Leadership Perception Scale" and the "Quiet Quitting Scale." The data were analyzed using the NCSS 2020 software. In addition to descriptive statistics, Independent Samples t-test and One-Way ANOVA were used for normally distributed data, while Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied for non-normally distributed data. Bonferroni and Dunn post-hoc tests were conducted for groups where significant differences were found. Moreover, relationships between variables were examined using Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses. According to the research findings, a positive and significant relationship was found between dark leadership and quiet quitting (r=0.543; p<0.01). It was observed that as the sub-dimensions of "oppressive," "insincere," and "bullying" leadership increased, the level of quiet quitting also rose. It was also determined that perceptions of dark leadership significantly increased with longer duration of employment in the institution and in the unit. The findings indicate that dark leadership has negative effects on organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and psychological well-being.