title: Linking transformational leadership to nurses' extra-role performance: the mediating role of self-efficacy and work engagement.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper is a report of a social cognitive theory-guided study about the link between supervisors' transformational leadership and staff nurses' extra-role performance as mediated by nurse self-efficacy and work engagement.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Past research has acknowledged the positive influence that transformational leaders have on employee (extra-role) performance. However, less is known about the psychological mechanisms that may explain the links between transformational leaders and extra-role performance, which encompasses behaviours that are not considered formal job requirements, but which facilitate the smooth functioning of the organization as a social system.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventeen supervisors evaluated nurses' extra-role performance, the data generating a sample consisting of 280 dyads. The nurses worked in different health services in a large Portuguese hospital and the participation rate was 76·9% for nurses and 100% for supervisors. Data were collected during 2009. A theory-driven model of the relationships between transformation leadership, self-efficacy, work engagement and nurses' extra-role performance was tested using Structural Equation Modelling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data analysis revealed a full mediation model in which transformational leadership explained extra-role performance through self-efficacy and work engagement. A direct relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement was also found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses' supervisors with a transformational leadership style enhance different 'extra-role' performance in nurses and this increases hospital efficacy. They do so by establishing a sense of self-efficacy but also by amplifying their levels of engagement in the workplace.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain. marisa.salanova@psi.uji.es
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salanova
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lorente
authors.forename: Maria J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Chambel
authors.forename: Isabel M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Martínez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009042:Motivation; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D011582:Psychological Theory; D020377:Self Efficacy; D017132:Workplace