Healthcare Employees/Individual Contributors/Members/Adults
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment among direct care workers in nonprofit, long term care organizations. METHODOLOGY The study included 314 direct care workers (DCWs) employed by nine nonprofit long term care organizations located in the Midwest (response rate = 30%). The study participants completed the LPI-Observer, a commitment survey (Meyer & Allen, 2004), and provided demographic information. Nearly 80 percent worked in nursing facilities, and 83 percent were female, on average 39 years of age, Caucasian (77%), and 52 percent held a high school diploma or GED and 46 percent a college or graduate degree. Their median hourly wage was $12, 88 percent reported an annual income of less than $30,000, with an average length of employment between one and six years. Internal reliability coefficients for the LPI-Observer were .883 Model, .916 Inspire, .897 Challenge, .911 Enable, .935 Encourage, and .978 overall.
KEY FINDINGS Transformational leadership (overall LPI score) was found to be significantly correlated with affective and normative, but not, continuance commitment among DCWs in nonprofit long term care organizations. Respondents from nursing facility organizations reported significantly lower correlations with organizational commitment than those from “other” types of facilities (e.g., senior housing and home- and community-based services). The author concludes: “Leadership development training should be considered for continuing education requirements for supervisors at all levels. Research has shown that leadership skills can be developed (Avolio, 2011), and a recent qualitative study on coaching as a leader practice in long term care revealed benefits in communication skills, staff empowerment, and feedback processes (Cummings et al., 2014)” (p. 94).