Mangers' Leadership Style and its Association to their Staff Nurses' Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Background: Nurses deal with a variety of situations and patients, all of which are factors in the circumstances and workloads at the patient level. Furthermore, a higher level of nurse dissatisfaction leads to nurses leaving the profession. Managers' leadership style has a substantial impact on the job satisfaction of staff nurses. Aim: To assess the managers' leadership styles and its association to their staff nurses' job satisfaction. Subjects and methods: Design: A descriptive correlational design was used. Setting: The study was conducted in two governmental hospitals in Damanhour City. Subjects: A total of 300 staff nurses were selected from previous settings based on the non-probability convenient sampling technique. Tools used for data collections: Tool I: Demographic datasheet, Tool II: The multifactor leadership questionnaire, and Tool III: The work quality index questionnaire. Results: Managers' leadership styles, as perceived by staff nurses, in this study were transformational leadership frequently, transactional leadership occasionally, and laissez-faire leadership on occasion. The job satisfaction of staff nurses was rated as somewhat satisfied' for professional work environment (4.83±0.09) and professional relationships (4.39±0.05) and 'neutral' for autonomy (4.42±0.01), work worth (4.89±0.08), role enactment (4.43±0.03) and rewards (4.32±0.07). Transformational leadership had significant positive correlation with the level of job satisfaction with a p-value of 0.000. There was significant negative correlation between level of job satisfaction of the staff nurses and the managers' transformational leadership style, as judged by the staff nurses. Conclusion: The current study revealed that nurse managers exhibited transformational leadership style more than transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. The nurses' job satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with transformational leadership styles. Recommendations: Further study needs to be conducted to head of staff nurses perceptions about various leadership styles and their effects.