Healthcare Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine whether certain leadership behaviors could positively affect employees' job satisfaction and productivity in a public hospital in Singapore.
METHODOLOGY The survey was conducted in the medical division of the hospital with a population of just over 500 nurses and managers working in 10 different in-patient wards, with a sample of 92 nurses and 22 nurse managers. Respondents completed the Leadership Practices Inventory (Self and Observer versions), Productivity Scale (McNeese-Smith, 1996), Job Satisfaction scale designed by the researcher, and provided demographic information. The typical nurse respondent was female (97%), below 30 years of age (71%), with less than five years of nursing experience, while the typical manager was female, over 40 years of age, and over 25 years of nursing experience.
KEY FINDINGS Internal reliability for the LPI in this study, overall, was .97 for managers and .98 for nurses. Managers rated their own leadership behaviors significantly higher (more frequently) than did their constituents across all five leadership practices. LPI scores were significantly correlated with measures of job satisfaction and productivity (r > .47), which held when controlling for nursing experience and hospital experience. Multiple regression analysis showed that 51 percent of the variance in job satisfaction and 27 percent of the variance around productivity were explained by the leadership set (five practices).
Therefore, concludes the researcher: "...investing time and effort in learning and practicing the new transformational leadership skills will not only improve employees' job satisfaction and productivity but also prepare the managers to meet the future challenges in nursing. Using the Kouzes and Posner's model of transformational leadership has merits and can reap handsome rewards for nursing management of this hospital" (p. 100-101).