OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to describe the current state of the interim manager (IM) role and the impact of the role on job performance.
BACKGROUND
Interim managers provide leadership during organizational change, yet little is known about the role and its impact on outcomes.
METHODS
An electronic survey was completed by 179 IMs working in acute care hospitals. Instruments included the Nurse Manager Practice Environment Scale, Decision Involvement Scale, Subjective Stress Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Brief Resilience Scale.
RESULTS
The average tenure for IMs was 10 months. Despite moderately high levels of stress and exhaustion, IMs were resilient, positively viewed their work environment, and perceived their job performance as positively impacting nurse and patient outcomes. Interim managers were generally satisfied in their roles and likely to pursue nursing leadership as a career.
CONCLUSION
Interim managers desire permanent leadership opportunities providing a pool for replacing exiting nurse managers. Support is needed to be successful.
Nurse managers by role are required to implement organizationally mandated actions with potential to threaten the psychological, physical, or emotional well-being of employees. Value conflicts, or a state of dissonance, can arise when managers do not believe in the necessity of the mandated action. The process undertaken by managers to resolve this state can threaten the individual well-being of the nurse manager, including their role engagement and professional commitment to the organization. This article describes the psychological challenges faced by frontline nurse managers as they attempt to resolve this stressful state. Recommendations for nurse managers and organizational executives are discussed.
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