Date of Award

Spring 5-16-2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Nursing

Department

Nursing

Advisor

Marie Foley, Ph.D

Committee Member

Barbara Wright

Committee Member

Phyllis Hansell, Ed.D

Committee Member

Pamela Foley

Keywords

Rogers Science of Unitary Human Beings, Power, Trust, Job Satisfaction, Nurse Managers

Abstract

Background: Defined as control and freedom, power is often characterized as hierarchical. Power-as-freedom exists as a unitary manifestation of the whole and is acausal. Thus a worldview that emphasizes mutual process rather than a causal (control) view supports a culture of trust in the healthcare environment that generates a committed and a thriving work force. When nurse leaders support a climate of trust, managers develop a sense of commitment to the organization which may lead to job satisfaction. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the relationship between power, trust and job satisfaction among nurse managers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the relationships between and among power, trust and job satisfaction of nurse managers practicing in select acute care hospitals.

Methods: This descriptive correlational study of ninety-eight nurse managers investigated the relationships between power as knowing participation in change, trust, trust of self, trust of others and job satisfaction working in acute care hospitals in New Jersey. Participants completed four measurement instruments including the Power as Knowing Participation in Change Test, Version II, the TORI scale, the Work Quality Index scale and a Demographic Information Form.

Results: The one tailed Pearson coefficient indicated a positive and statistically significant (r = .25, p = .001) relationship between power as knowing participation in change with trust of self.

The one tailed Pearson correlation coefficient for the relationship between power as knowing participation in change and trust of others indicated a negligible, non-significant relationship (r = .03, p = .38). The multiple regression analysis evaluated the relationship of power as knowing participation in change, and the combination of trust of self and job satisfaction with trust of self and job satisfaction together explaining 19% of the variance in power F (2, 95) = 11.00, p ≤ .001. Multiple regression analysis examined the relationship between power as knowing participation in change and the combination of trust of others and job satisfaction with trust of others and job satisfaction together explaining 19% of the variance in power F (2, 95) = 11.04, p ≤ .000. Ancillary findings used Pearson Correlation which revealed a positive correlation coefficient between perceived power and the participants’ belief that they were fairly compensated (r = .20, p = .05), and years with current hospital (r = -.24, p = .02). Job satisfaction was found to have a weak positive relationship with years as nurse manager on current unit (r = .25, p = .01), and a moderate inverse relationship with feeling fairly compensated (r = .47, p ≤ .001). Finally, an inverse relationship was noted between participants annual salary with feeling fairly compensated (r = -.21, p = .04).

Conclusions: This study represented an opportunity for nurse administrators to promote Rogerian science with nurse managers in order to potentially manifest power with evolving mutual pattern manifestations in a mutually interactive process and experience job satisfaction in the acute care work environment. Nurse managers who experience job satisfaction will create and maintain work environments for nurses to practice that support quality patient outcomes. Viewed from an acausal worldview, trust of self is a pattern manifestation of the human and environmental process with job satisfaction explaining 19% of the variance in power.

Download

Share

COinS