| Summary |
The purpose of this study was to explore the question of which job-related factors are perceived by public health nurses as contributors to their job satisfaction. One specific job-related component, the management style of the nursing director, was examined to determine whether or not there were significant differences in staff nurse satisfaction relative to the nursing director's management style. Stamps and Piedmonte's Index of Work Satisfaction questionnaire was used to measure six conceptually separate components of job satisfaction: professional status, pay, organizational policies, task requirements, interaction and autonomy. Hall et al.'s Styles of Management Inventory, based on Blake and Mouton's managerial grid model, was used to define the nursing director's dominant management style. Data from 21 nursing directors and 243 staff nurses were analyzed using frequency distributions, one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis. Overall, ANOVA results and Duncan Multiple Range Tests revealed no significant differences between the groups of nurses on any of the six components of job satisfaction. Correlation analysis, used to determine if any relationship between the variables existed irrespective of the groups. also demonstrated no pattern of consequence which would justify using the data to make inferences regarding the relationship between management style and staff nurse satisfaction. The pattern of management styles demonstrated by the nursing directors in this study is not consistent with the notion that management is style or behavior specific. This finding, coupled with difficulties describing a dominant style using the selected tool, suggest that further research is needed to retest the underlying assumptions made in this study using different measures of nurse manager behaviors. |
