Determining the relationship between manager nurses' leadership behaviors and nurses' organizational silence behaviors

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between manager nurses' leadership behaviors and nurses' organizational silence. Method: The research is cross-sectional, relationship-seeking descriptive type. The sample of the study consisted of 209 nurses working in a state hospital in Antalya between June 2023 and November 2024. Personal Information Form, Leadership Behavior Scale and Organizational Silence Behavior Scale were used as data collection tools in the research. Statistical analyzes were made using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 27) package program. In the interpretation of the findings of the research, frequency analysis average and Spearman correlation analysis were performed in the variables of leadership behaviors and organizational silence behavior. Findings: The average age of the nurses was 32.48±7.51 years; 74.2% were female, 79.4% held a bachelor's degree, 41.6% had ≥10 years of experience, 37.8% had worked at the institution for ≥5 years, 44.5% worked in intensive care, 45.0% had been in their current unit for ≤1 year, and 81.3% worked day/night shifts. More than half of the nurses did not consider quitting their jobs. The average scores for leadership behaviors were: employee-oriented (3.65±0.86), task-oriented (3.79±0.76), and change-oriented (3.65±0.80). The organizational silence scores were: silence climate (2.61±0.78), fear-based silence (2.30±0.82), acquiescent silence (3.02±0.98), and institution-protecting silence (2.69±0.97), with a total average of 2.65±0.74. No significant correlations were found between leadership behaviors and organizational silence (p>0.05). Conclusion: No significant relationship was found between manager nurses' leadership behaviors and nurses' organizational silence behaviors. It is recommended that the leadership behaviors of manager nurses and the organizational silence behaviors of nurses be examined in different samples and the reasons for organizational silence be investigated.