| Summary |
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between nurse administrators' leadership styles and job satisfaction of nurse managers under their supervision. The hypothesis tested was that nurse managers who perceived nurse administrators' leadership styles as transformational would demonstrate a higher level of job satisfaction. The leadership styles of the nurse administrators were examined to determine whether there was a difference in the nurse managers' job satisfaction relative to the nurse administrators' leadership styles. Stamps and Piedmonte's Index of Work Satisfaction questionnaire was used to measure six conceptually separate components of job satisfaction: autonomy, task requirements, organizational policy, professional status, pay, and interaction. Stogdill and Coons' Leader Behavior Descriptive Questionnaire was used to define the nurse administrators' dominant leadership style. The leadership styles explored were the transactional leadership (initiation of structure) and the transformational leadership (consideration). If there was a difference in the scores of the transformational and transactional which were equal to a plus one or a minus one, then those scores were placed in another group labeled mixed, consisted of those managers who perceived their administrator to be high in both consideration and The mixed group initiation of structure. Data from 33 nurse managers, who were employed in ten hospitals in Eastern North Carolina, were analyzed using frequency distribution and ANOVA. Overall results from the frequency distribution and analysis of variance revealed that there were no significant differences in job satisfaction of nurse managers who worked under the direct supervision of the nurse administrators as a transformational leader or transactional leader. However, findings from this study showed a definite trend which was consistent with the belief that the transformational leadership style would positively contribute to nurse managers' job satisfaction. Further study should be initiated to investigate nurse managers' job satisfaction with other styles of leadership. |
