Transformational leadership vs. proactive personality: Contributing factors to physiotherapists proactive behaviors and burnout during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic

Background: In May 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) added burn out to the list of occupational phenomena in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Soon thereafter, in March 2020, a global pandemic of SARS-COV-2 was declared. Objective: To investigate the interplay between transformational leadership, a proactive personality, employee proactive behaviors, and burn out in the field of physiotherapy during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Methods: Physiotherapists working at the Meuhedet Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) were asked to fill an online cross-sectional survey, in which they were asked to evaluate the transformational behavior of their manager and to assess their own burn out rate, degree of self-efficacy, proactive personality, and proactive behaviors. Eighty-one physical therapists (average age of 37.3 years (SD = 9.0)) responded to the survey, most of whom were female (67.9%, n = 55). Results: Transformational leadership and proactive personality were negatively associated with occupational burn out (β = −0.231, p < 0.05, β = −0.243, p < 0.05, respectively) among physiotherapists. The effect of the interaction between transformational leadership and proactive personality on proactive behaviors at work was not significant. However, a strong, significant positive relationship was found between proactive personality and proactive behaviors (β = 0.425, p < 0.001), and between self-efficacy and proactive behaviors (β = 0.479, p < 0.001). Conclusions: This up-to-date survey of transformational leadership and proactive personality among physiotherapists highlights these traits' important impact on burn out and proactive behaviors during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Furthermore, the transformational manager plays an important role in reducing burnout levels among physiotherapists, especially during a crisis such as the SARS-COV-2 pandemic.