Transformational and transactional leadership characteristics of nurse managers in relationship to the organizational commitment of registered nurse followers

• Main Author: McGuire, Elaine
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2003
• Subjects: Leadership; Management; Nursing; Organizational structure; Perceptions
• ISBN: 0496628127; 9780496628124

Over the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that the role of the first-line nurse manager is pivotal in assuring organizational success within the healthcare environment. The manager's ability to demonstrate a leadership style that fosters the organizational commitment of registered nurse followers could result in greater achievement at the unit level and add to the competitive advantage of the entire organization. Using a correlational, non-experimental design this research study explored the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership characteristics of nurse managers and the degree of organizational commitment demonstrated by staff nurses who are direct reports. Participants consisted of 63 nurse managers and 500 staff nurses working in acute care, not-for-profit hospitals with greater than 150 beds. Quantitative tools, including the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (leader and rater forms) (Bass & Avolio, 2000) and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Cook, Hepworth, Wall, & Warr, 1989) were used to measure several of the variables. Using Transformational Leadership Theory (Bass, 1998) as the theoretical framework for this research, data were collected over a four month period at 11 different hospitals in the Midwest. Data analysis revealed that there is a direct correlation between the staff nurse's perception of the nurse manager's transformational and transactional leadership characteristics and the degree of organizational commitment demonstrated by the same staff nurses. Nurse managers who are perceived as possessing transformational leadership characteristics are more likely to have staff nurses who are organizationally committed. Findings associated with this research study indicated that staff nurses who demonstrate a high level of organizational commitment were also more willing to exert extra effort in behalf of the organization. The first-line nurse manager, therefore, has the potential to significantly impact the competitive advantage of the healthcare organization by demonstrating transformational leadership.