Introduction Job embeddedness is beneficial for promoting nurse retention, positive organizational behavior, and patient outcomes. Therefore, it is crucial to give more attention to the job embeddedness of nurses. This study aims to explore the mediating role of affective commitment in the perception of authentic leadership, organizational climate, and job embeddedness among Chinese nurses. Methods This cross-sectional study surveyed 716 clinical nurses from hospitals in northern China. The data analysis methods included a descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis, and Bootstrap mediation effect test. Results We found a significant positive correlation between authentic leadership, organizational climate, affective commitment, and the job embeddedness of nurses. Affective commitment partially mediates authentic leadership and job embeddedness and fully mediates organizational climate and job embeddedness. Discussion Authentic leadership style is an important factor affecting the job embeddedness of nurses; affective commitment as a mediating variable more clearly reveals the impact of authentic leadership and organizational climate on job embeddedness. Nursing managers should develop an authentic leadership style, improve organizational climate, effectively enhance affective commitment, strengthen nurses’ job embeddedness, and promote nurse retention.
Zhou et al. (2025) studied this question.