A study of nurses' job satisfaction and motivation: The relationship to Nurse Managers' Leadership style

Abstract

Leader’s behavior or leadership style may influence the subordinates’ level of job satisfaction. Recently, it has been shown that successful leadership is the result of the interaction between leaders and their subordinates in a particular organization situation. In an attempt to answer the question” Does leadership style of nurse managers have a significance effect on nurses’ job satisfaction and motivation to work?”This study was conducted aiming at investigating the relationship between the nurse managers’ leadership styles and the nurses’ job satisfaction and motivation to work. Total number of Subject was 347 chosen from four University hospitals, 41 nurse managers and 306 nurses. Data for this study were collected using three tools: Leadership Profile, Motivation Rating Scale and Job satisfaction questionnaire. Validity of the tools was confirmed by jury. Reliability also was ascertained using test-retest procedures to determine its equivalency and stability. Finding of the study indicated that the majority of the nurse managers (85.4%) adopted mixed leadership style, more than half of nurses (54.2%) showed dissatisfaction, and there is significant difference in job satisfaction among staff nurses in four hospitals. The majority of nurses (89.5%) were motivated to work. No significant difference was found among nurses in the four studied hospitals in relation to motivation. The majority of motivated nurses (96.4%) were satisfied. There are high association between job satisfaction and motivation of studied nurses (p < 0.01). The staff nurses had an ability to be motivated (94.2%) and satisfied (48.2%) with the mixed style of the nurse manager. Leadership styles of the nurse managers affect positively on satisfaction and motivation scores of staff nurses (r=0.99). On the light of the findings, this study made recommendation to properly preparing head nurses to be a source of job satisfaction and motivation. Key words: leadership, job satisfaction, motivation.