CEO Social Support and Job Satisfaction Among Nurse Executives and Nurse Managers: A Correlational Study

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationships between CEOs' social support and job satisfaction in nurse executives and nurse managers.

METHODOLOGY
Of 131 hospitals on the Houston (Texas) Area Hospital List, 53 acute care hospitals were assigned numbers, and 40 were randomly selected. Respondents included 24 CEOs, 28 Chief Nursing Officers, 97 nurse directors, and 102 nurse managers, and they completed the appropriate version of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Self and Observers), the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 2007) and provided demographic information. The typical CEO was male (88%) while more than three-fourths of the "observers" or constituents were female. Just over two-thirds of the CEOs were between the ages of 50-59, while only about one-third of the constituents were in this age bracket (generally younger). CEOs, CNOs, nurse directors, and nurse managers were predominantly Caucasian at 58 percent, 58, 70% and 53 percent respectively.

KEY FINDINGS
The author reports that "correlational analysis revealed a weak to moderate relationship between CEOs' overall social support attributes demonstrated through the leadership practices of Kouzes and Posner and overall job satisfaction of nurse executives and nurse managers" (p. 124). These relationships, however, did not reach levels of statistical significance. These findings, according to the author, "may also be useful for collaboration of human resources personnel and nursing educators. Human resource leaders and nursing educators can work together to develop strategic nursing leadership and management development programs and training sessions with active involvement of senior leaders, such as CEOs, in the overall learning and implementation process"(p.127).