The relationship between transformational leadership and burnout in health workers

The aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between health worker's transformational leadership perceptions and burnout levels. In this direction, leadership and transformational leadership concepts are discussed in the first part of the study. In the second part, the concept of burnout, the reasons and dimensions of burnout were investigated. Then, the method, findings and results of the research are included. The population of the study consists of 787 health care workers in a public hospital serving in Kocaeli province. The sample consists of 301 employees selected by simple random sampling method. The data were collected using the Transformational Leadership Scale (Podsakoff et al., 1990), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (Şeker, 2011) and the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Descriptive statistical methods, correlation analysis, regression analysis, independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Data were analyzed at 95% confidence interval (p = 0.05). According to the findings of the study, transformational leadership perceptions of the employees and burnout levels are in the middle level. There is a positive but not very strong relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. Transformational leadership has a significant effect on burnout, and transformational leadership practices have an impact on burnout. According to the socio - demographic characteristics of the participants, there is no significant difference in the perceptions of transformational leadership in terms of gender, marital status, educational status and working time characteristics. Also, there is no significant difference in the burnout levels in terms of gender, marital status, educational status, age, and occupational group characteristics. On the other hand, there are statistically significant differences in the perceptions of transformational leadership in terms of age and occupation. Also, there are statistically significant differences in burnout levels in terms of working time characteristics. As a result, the transformational leadership behaviors of managers of health workers are not sufficient and this increased burnout levels of employees as a contrary to expectations. Managers should be more autonomous in their behavior . While encouraging their employees for group purposes, managers should support their employees and they should be the consistent role model.