AimTo determine the level of job satisfaction of nursing professionals in Slovenian hospitals and factors influencing job satisfaction in nursing.MethodsThe study included 4 hospitals selected from the hospital list comprising 26 hospitals in Slovenia. The employees of these hospitals represent 29.8% and 509 employees included in the study represent 6% of all employees in nursing in Slovenian hospitals. One structured survey questionnaire was administered to the leaders and the other to employees, both consisting 154 items evaluated on a 5 point Likert-type scale. We examined the correlation between independent variables (age, number of years of employment, behavior of leaders, personal characteristics of leaders, and managerial competencies of leaders) and the dependent variable (job satisfaction – satisfaction with the work, coworkers, management, pay, etc) by applying correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis. In addition, factor analysis was used to establish characteristic components of the variables measured.ResultsWe found a medium level of job satisfaction in both leaders (3.49 ± 0.5) and employees (3.19 ± 0.6), however, there was a significant difference between their estimates (t = 3.237; P = <0.001). Job satisfaction was explained by age (P < 0.05; β = 0.091), years of employment (P < 0.05; β = 0.193), personal characteristics of leaders (P < 0.001; β = 0.158), and managerial competencies of leaders (P < 0.000; β = 0.634) in 46% of cases. The factor analysis yielded four factors explaining 64% of the total job satisfaction variance.ConclusionSatisfied employees play a crucial role in an organization’s success, so health care organizations must be aware of the importance of employees’ job satisfaction. It is recommended to monitor employees’ job satisfaction levels on an annual basis.

AimTo compare nursing leaders’ and employees’ perception of leaders’ leadership style, personality characteristics, and managerial competencies and to determine the associations between these factors.MethodsThe study included 4 out of 5 Slovenian major hospitals selected from the hospital list; 1 hospital refused to participate. The employees of these hospitals represent 30% of all employees in nursing in Slovenian hospitals and the 509 employees included in the study represent 6%. One structured survey questionnaire was administered to the leaders and the other to employees, both consisting of 134 statements evaluated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The relationship between demographic data, leadership style, leaders’ personality characteristics, and leaders’ training and managerial competencies was analyzed by correlation and multivariate regression analysis. The study took place in April 2009.ResultsLeaders and employees significantly differently evaluated 13 out of 14 managerial competencies of the leaders, where leaders rated themselves higher for vision and goals, communication, conflict resolution-agreement, compromise, adjustment, motivation, interpersonal relationships, problem solving, delegation, teamwork, decision making, emotional intelligence, and human resources development. Employees rated the leaders higher for managing changes and conflict resolution-dominance and avoidance. Multivariate regression analysis showed that managerial competencies were explained by leadership style, leaders’ training, leaders’ characteristics, and type of employment in 86.1% of cases.ConclusionLeaders in nursing too frequently used inappropriate leadership style. Forming a unique model for all health care institutions in the country would facilitate the evaluation of competencies and constant monitoring of leaders’ work results.

This paper discusses the study that considered the predictors of individual involvement in a health care team, following research evidence that the level of personal involvement in an organization correlates negatively with stress levels. The aim was to establish whether organizational culture, teamwork and leadership models play a role in successful individual involvement in a health care team. The sample included 835 respondents from 14 Slovene hospitals and 3 personnel categories: doctors, nurses and non‐health care professionals chosen by randomly distributed questionnaires. There were 101 leaders in the respondents group. Linear regression model included eight independent variables and two dependent variables. The results showed that the variance of successful individual involvement correlates most highly with teamwork in an organization (ΔR2 = 0.319) and most important predictor for successful individual involvement was transformational leadership (ΔR2 = 0.411). Also, secondary regression analyses showed that the variance of successful individual involvement in a health care team can be explained differently according to the three personnel categories. From the management point of view, the research provided an insight into the motivation of health care professionals—including ways to motivate them and recognize their work, consequently reducing employee stress levels in Slovene hospitals. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In addition to other predictors of personal involvement in an organization, which have been researched and confirmed in other studies, our study has also shown the level of education and transactional leadership to be a statistically significant predictor. Managers and leaders must accept responsibility for the existing results regarding personal involvement and start to work on interprofessional collaboration within the organization and outside of it.

BackgroundEffective human resources management plays a vital role in the success of health-care sector reform. Leaders are selected for their clinical expertise and not their management skills, which is often the case at the middle-management level. The purpose of this study was to examine the situation in some fields that involve working with people in health-care organizations at middle-management level.MethodsThe study included eight state-owned hospitals in Slovenia. A cross-sectional study included 119 middle managers and 778 employees. Quota sampling was used for the subgroups. Structured survey questionnaires were administered to leaders and employees, each consisting of 24 statements in four content sets evaluated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Respondents were also asked about the type and number of training or education programmes they had participated in over the last three years. Descriptive statistics, two-way analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression were used. The study was conducted from March to December 2008.ResultsStatistically significant differences were established between leaders and employees in all content sets; no significant differences were found when comparing health-care providers and health-administration workers. Employment position was found to be a significant predictor for employee development (β = 0.273, P < 0.001), the leader–employee relationship (β = 0.291, P < 0.001) and organizational motivation (β = 0.258, P < 0.001). Area of work (β = 0.113, P = 0.010) and employment position (β = 0.389, P < 0.001) were significant predictors for personal involvement. Level of education correlated negatively with total scores for organizational motivation: respondents with a higher level of education were rated with a lower score (β = -0.117, P = 0.024). Health-care providers participate in management programmes less frequently than do health-administration workers.ConclusionEmployee participation in change-implementation processes was low, as was awareness of the importance of employee development. Education of employees in Slovenian hospitals for leadership roles is still not perceived as a necessary investment for improving work processes. Hospitals are state owned and a national strategy should be developed on how to improve leadership and management in Slovenian hospitals.