Ethical leadership behaviors of senior managers perceived by the junior managers working in public hospitals in Hail, Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVE

To examine junior managers experiences of ethical leadership behaviors exhibited by their senior managers.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, 263 junior health care managers working in public hospitals in Hail, Saudi Arabia were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire between 20 November, 2022 and 15 February, 2023. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were employed in the analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to conduct statistical analyses.

RESULTS

The sample consisted of 118 men (44.9%) and the majority (66.6%) of the respondents were below the age of 36 years. In case of working environment, nearly 84% of the participants were satisfied with the relationships that they have had with their supervisors. Regression analysis indicate that women were more likely than men to experience healthy ethical leadership behaviors of their seniors (β = -0.163, p < 0.05). Ethical leadership behaviors of senior health care managers would not influence by the age or work experience of their juniors.

CONCLUSION

Ethical leadership behavior of senior health care managers was satisfactory. Longitudinal research is needed to investigate how cultural and environmental factors affect the ethical leadership behavior of healthcare managers in Saudi Arabia.