Exploring Nurse Leaders' Behaviors in the Qassim Region (KSA): Insights from Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)

Introduction Nursing leadership plays a significant role in determining the quality of healthcare, staff performance, and organizational performance. Good nurse administrators influence patient outcomes, team motivation, and workplace culture. This study reviewed leadership practices among nurse administrators in the Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia, using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), and sought to examine the connection between leadership behaviors and performance. Method The design used in this study was quantitative, cross-sectional, and descriptive. Three hospitals were involved in the study, consisting of 85 nurse administrators. The MLQ-5X Short Form was used to evaluate leadership behaviors, such as transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidant leadership, and leadership outcomes. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression were used to analyze data. Results The analysis revealed that the most prevalent style was transformational leadership (mean = 3.83 ± 0.70), followed by transactional (3.25 ± 0.62) and passive-avoidant leadership (2.23 ± 0.66). Transformational leadership was positively correlated with leadership outcomes (r = 0.804, p < 0.001). Regression analysis revealed it to be the best predictor, explaining 65.6 percent of the variance in outcomes. Discussion Leading Saudi nurse leaders predominantly used transformational leadership, which is closely associated with increased staff effort, performance, and satisfaction. Conclusion Transformational leadership can be enhanced through targeted training and mentoring, thereby strengthening nurses' leadership capacity and improving patient care quality in Saudi hospitals.