Healthcare Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE To determine if relationships exist between staff nurses' perception of their manager's leadership behaviors and the staff nurses' job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
METHODOLOGY Sample consisted of 80 staff nurses in a large (934 bed) tertiary care medical center (40% return rate). Sixty-eight percent were female with a mean age of 35 years. Associate nursing degrees were held by 56% and 45% worked in an intermediate care unit. Average years as an RN was nine, with 89% being currently employed full-time and, on average, with 6.9 years in this hospital. Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used to measure satisfaction, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire was used to measure commitment, and the Leadership Practices Inventory — Other was used to measure perceptions of their manager's leadership behavior.
KEY FINDINGS Job satisfaction and organizational commitment were significantly correlated with all five leadership practices. No significant differences were found in leadership practices as a result of respondent characteristics: e.g., gender, work status (full or part-time), area of practice (medical/surgical, intensive care, intermediate care, and specialty), educational degree, age, years as a registered nurse or with the particular manager or hospital.
"The behavior of managers in leadership roles can influence staff nurses to experience more job satisfaction and increase long-term commitment to the organization. Nurse managers can use the leadership behaviors of challenging, enabling, encouraging, inspiring, and modeling to create an environment that will facilitate success for both the staff nurse and the employing organization. This type of environment would also be likely to have a positive influence on the quality and cost of patient care" (pp 36-37).