Error-Tolerant Leadership in Public Health: How Tolerance From Leaders Strengthens Healthcare Workers’ Collectivism, Colleague Trust, and Job Satisfaction

Objectives: This study investigates how leader tolerance for errors improves front-line healthcare workers' job satisfaction by actively fostering collectivism and trust in colleagues, drawing on Conservation of Resources theory. It seeks to offer practical leadership insights for public health systems operating under pressure. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 553 healthcare professionals in a Chinese municipal hospital and analyzed the data using Hayes' PROCESS Macro (Model 6) to test the proposed mediation model. Results: ) serving as powerful mediators. Together, these mediators account for 51.16% of the total effect, with trust in colleagues emerging as the dominant pathway mediator (30.23%). Conclusion: Tolerant leadership actively builds a psychologically safe and collaborative work climate, elevating job satisfaction and enabling clinical teams to function as adaptive learning communities. Developing leadership capabilities that normalize error tolerance and reinforce interpersonal trust is critical for strengthening public health resilience in both crisis and long-term contexts.