Background Nurses’ work engagement has received extensive attention due to its positive impacts on individual and organizational outcomes, including patient safety and quality care in healthcare organizations. Although nurse managers’ leadership and a variety of resources have been identified as important factors of nurses’ work engagement, these relationships have not been well understood in Korean nursing contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among nurse managers’ leadership, resources, and work engagement among Korean nurses after controlling for nurses’ demographic and work-related characteristics. Methods This is a cross-sectional study using data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey. Using a sample of 477 registered nurses, we employed hierarchical linear regression analyses. Nurse managers’ leadership, job resources (organizational justice and support from peers), professional resources (employee involvement), and personal resources (meaning of work) were examined as potential predictors of nurses’ work engagement. Results We found that nurse managers’ leadership (β = 0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.17–0.41) was the strongest predictor of nurses’ work engagement, followed by meaning of work (β = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.07–0.18), organizational justice (β = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.10–0.32), and support from peers (β = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.04–0.23). Employee involvement was not a statistically significant predictor of nurses’ work engagement (β = -0.07, 95% CI = -0.11–0.01). Conclusions Our findings suggest that comprehensive approaches are required to promote nurses’ work engagement. Considering that nurse managers’ leadership was the strongest predictor of nurses’ work engagement, nurse managers should demonstrate supportive leadership behaviors such as acknowledging and praising their unit nurses’ work performance. Furthermore, both individual- and organizational-level strategies are necessary for nurses to be engaged at work.
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