The Perception of Adaptive Leadership and Servant Leadership on Nurse Well-Being

The current healthcare environment is considered a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, which increases stress and contributes to burnout and a decline in nurse well-being. Although leadership behaviors influence the environment, there is little known about how adaptive leadership and servant leadership specifically relate to nurse well-being in hospital environments. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between registered nurses’ perceptions of adaptive leadership and servant leadership behaviors of their direct nurse managers and their self‑reported well‑being, as measured by the PERMA‑H Profiler, within a Midwestern hospital. Two hypotheses were tested to understand the extent which adaptive leadership and servant leadership behaviors were associated with nurse well-being. The two hypotheses were tested with a prediction of a positive relationship between adaptive leadership and servant leadership and PERMA-H well-being domain of positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, and health. A quantitative correlational design was used where data was collected from 34 registered nurses using three validated instruments: PERMA-H Profiler, Adaptative Leadership Behavior Scale, and Servant Leadership Questionnaire. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to test the relationship between perceived leadership behaviors and nurse well-being. Results indicated there was a small, positive, but non-significant relationship between adaptive leadership behaviors and nurse well-being. In contrast, a moderate, positive statistically significant relationship was found between servant leadership and nurse well-being. These findings highlight servant leadership as a positive approach to enhancing nurse well-being within a hospital environment, whereas adaptive leadership showed limited, although positive, relationship with well-being. The results suggest enhancing organizational practices designed to support servant leadership behaviors which emphasize relationship, supportive, and people-centered practice would strengthen nurse well-being. Keywords: adaptive leadership, burnout, PERMA-H, servant leadership, nurse well-being

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Espenhover, Holly, Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Costanzo, Cindy

• Adaptive leadership
• Burnout
• Nurse Well-Being
• PERMA-H
• Servant leadership

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://cdr.creighton.edu/handle/10504/165648

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/165648