Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use conservation of resources (COR) theory as a lens for comparing the impact of line management on Bangladeshi public and private nurses’ perception of work harassment, well-being and turnover intentions where Anglo-American and European management models have been super-imposed on an existing different culture. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from 317 Bangladeshi nurses’ (131 from the public sector and 186 from the private sector). Structural equation modelling was used for analysis. Findings – High work harassment was associated with low-being, and together with management practices, it explained approximately a quarter of private sector nurses’ well-being. In total, management, work harassment and employee well-being explained approximately a third of the turnover intentions of public sector nurses, whereas only work harassment explained approximately a third of private sector nurses’ turnover intentions. The findings suggest a differential impact of management on work harassment across the public and private sector. Research limitations/implications – Cross-sectional data are susceptible to common method bias. A common latent factor was included, and several items that were explained by common method variance were controlled. Further, the findings are limited by the sample size from one sector and the use of only one developing country. Practical implications – It is a waste of resources to transplant Anglo-American and European management models to developing countries without understanding the impact on nurses’ outcomes. Originality/value – Anglo-American and European management models are not easily transferable to the Bangladesh context probably because of the impact of ties and corruption. Line management is a positive resource that builds employee well-being for public sector employees only.