Resonant Leadership and Proactive Vitality Management in Nurses: The Mediating Role of Post-COVID-19 Organizational Compassion.

Background: In the post-COVID-19 era, health care organizations must become more compassionate and focus on empathizing with their employees, noticing change in their behavior through continuous assessment, and responding to their suffering. Thus, health care organization leaders must be more emotionally responsive and provide compassionate support to the nurses through a resonant leadership style. Resonant leaders exhibit passionate insights, are attuned to the emotions of their followers, employ empathy, and effectively manage their feelings to build strong, trustworthy relationships and foster an environment of hope that motivates dedication. Consequently, applying a resonant leadership style in the presence of organizational compassion can enhance nurses' proactive vitality to success in dealing with challenging and uncertain circumstances, especially during and after pandemics.

Purpose: This study was designed to develop a structural equation model to investigate the impact of resonant leadership on the proactive vitality management of nurses, with organizational compassion as a mediating variable.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey with a convenience sampling technique was used on 520 nurses recruited from 3 public general hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt. Three instruments were used to collect the required data from January 2023 to June 2023, including the resonant leadership scale, nurses' proactive vitality management scale, and organizational compassion scale.

Results: The results of the structural equation model showed that the degree of fit for each index model was good, indicating all of the study variables, including resonant leadership and nurses' proactive vitality management were directly affected by organizational compassion, confirming organizational compassion to be a mediating variable between resonant leadership and proactive vitality management.

Conclusions: Organizational compassion is a mediating factor that enhances resonant leadership and stimulates nurses' proactive vitality management. The research results suggest valuable protocols for health care organizations seeking to encourage nurses' proactive vitality through effective emotional and resonant leadership in the context of organizational compassion.