Government/Public Sector Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE To study and compare leadership of head nurses as perceived by themselves and their staff nurses and the resulting impact on organizational commitment.
METHODOLOGY The subjects were 70 head nurses and 258 staff nurses obtained by using a stratified random sampling. In addition to demographic data, respondents completed the LPI (Self or Observer) and organizational commitment scale (Porter, et al. 1974). Most respondents were female (92%+). The typical head nurse was 44 years old and the typical staff nurse was 33 years old and their time in service reflected this difference in ages.
KEY FINDINGS Head nurses perceived themselves as providing significantly more leadership behaviors than did their constituents. All five leadership practices were significantly correlated with organizational commitment. Internal reliabilities for this study, for head nurses ranged between .73 and .82, and for staff nurses ranged between .86 and .95.