Leadership and Job satisfaction among Physicians in the Public Health Sector of Cyprus

Abstract Background Healthcare leadership and job satisfaction constitute important characteristics of health professionals’ employment status. Our study aim was to examine the relationship between managers’ leadership styles and physicians’ job satisfaction in the public health sector of Cyprus. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using self-administered questionnaires among all physicians working in the public health sector of Cyprus (Ministry of Health, administration offices, public hospitals and healthcare centers). In this context we used two standardized internationally validated instruments: the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X), and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). Results Out of 690 physicians working in the public health sector who received an invitation to participate, 511 completed the survey and 9 were excluded. Therefore, a total of 502 physicians (262 male and 235 female) were included in the final analysis (response rate 73%). Transactional and transformational leaderships had strong positive effects on six out of the nine job satisfaction subscales, as well as on the total job satisfaction scale, whereas passive leadership had a negative effect on job satisfaction. Overall, total leadership had a strong statistically significant positive effect on total job satisfaction [odds ratio = 3.88, 95% CI (2.27, 6.63)]. Conclusions We found strong and statistically significant associations between the transactional and transformational leadership styles and health professionals’ job satisfaction in most of the job satisfaction subscales. Establishing a causal relationship between the above requires further investigations with appropriate study design.