Adaptive Performance in Healthcare: The Role of Collaboration-Oriented Leadership, Work Engagement, Group Identification, and Change Predisposition.

AIM: This study aims to investigate the relationship between a leadership approach oriented toward collaborator involvement and adaptive performance, with work engagement and group identification as motivational mediators. Personal change predisposition was examined as a moderator between collaboration-oriented leadership, work engagement, and adaptive performance. BACKGROUND: Adaptive performance is essential for maintaining high-quality patient care in rapidly changing healthcare settings. Although collaborative leadership has been associated with several positive organizational outcomes, the mechanisms through which it supports healthcare professionals' adaptive performance remain unclear. METHODS: The authors conducted a cross-sectional study in a hospital in northern Italy. An online questionnaire was administered to 418 healthcare professionals, and more than half of the respondents were nurses. RESULTS: Collaboration-oriented leadership may support adaptive performance positively, both directly and indirectly, through work engagement and group identification. Change predisposition had a moderating effect only between leadership and adaptive performance and between leadership and work engagement, suggesting that collaboration-oriented leadership is more effective in enhancing adaptivity and engagement when healthcare professionals exhibit lower levels of change predisposition. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the importance of adopting a bottom-up leadership approach by actively involving and supporting team members to promote adaptive strategies in organizational contexts and situations characterized by greater resistance to change of human resources. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: In terms of practical implications, nurse managers and care-unit leaders could increase staff work engagement and the sense of group identification by providing additional supports to the professionals who are less predisposed to embrace organizational changes and are more resistant to innovation.