Leader Behavior Impact on Staff Nurse Empowerment

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this research was to examine relationships between perceived leader behaviors and perceived staff nurse empowerment

METHODOLOGY
The convenience sample involved distributing 197 surveys to staff nurses at a mid-Michigan health care agency, of which 55 were returned (28% response rate). The typical nurse was a Caucasian (100%), female (98%), about 42 years of age. Respondents completed the Leadership Practices Inventory (Observer) and Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire (Laschinger, 1999) to assess empowerment.

KEY FINDINGS
The relationship between each of the five leadership behaviors and staff nurse empowerment was statistically significant. Stepwise multiple regression showed that Enabling explained 34 percent of the variability in predicting perceived empowerment. The other four leadership dimensions were not statistically significant in this study.