THE MEDIATING ROLE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP PERCEPTION IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEES' TECHNO-STRESS PERCEPTIONS AND OCCUPATIONAL BURNOUT LEVELS: THE CASE OF A PUBLIC HOSPITAL

This study was conducted to determine the mediating role of transformational leadership behaviours in the indirect relationship between techno-stress perceptions and occupational burnout of healthcare professionals working in a training and research hospital in Erzincan province. For the purpose of the study, the techno-stress (independent variable), occupational burnout (dependent variable) and transformational leadership (mediating variable) scales in the literature were used. The research was carried out by reaching 341 people using simple random sampling method among 1462 employees working as doctors, nurses, other health personnel, administrative staff and support staff in the hospital. In order to test the hypotheses determined in line with the research purpose, validity and reliability analyses, correlation analysis and process macro model 4 were applied to determine the mediating role by using AMOS22, SPSS 27 and process macro plug-in. According to the results of the study, a statistically significant and highly positive relationship was found between the techno-stress levels of healthcare professionals and their occupational burnout. In addition, a statistically significant and high level negative relationship was found between transformational leadership behaviours and techno-stress levels and professional burnout of health care workers. It was also determined that transformational leadership behaviours had a partial mediating role in the indirect relationship between health care workers' perceptions of techno-stress and occupational burnout. In conclusion, when the research and findings were evaluated and the related literature was analysed, there was no study that examined the mediating role of transformational leadership in the relationship between techno-stress and occupational burnout, especially in the domestic literature. It is thought that this study will provide an important value to the related literature.