SELF-PERCEPTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, PROFESSIONAL AUTONOMY, AND JOB SATISFACTION OF FIRST-LINE NURSING MANAGERS.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 146
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.; Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations.
Description: A survey of first line managers was conducted to determine the relationships among perceptions of the employing organization as participative, professional autonomy from the organization, and job satisfaction. A total of 132 responding managers from large teaching hospitals in the New York metropolitan area met the criteria for inclusion in the study sample. These criteria included having at least a bachelor's degree, and having responsibility for units with at least 10 but not more than 100 beds.

Perception of the employing organization as participative was assessed Likert's (1978) Profile of Organizational Characteristics (POC). Professional autonomy was measured by the Autonomy From Employing Organization Scale (AEOS) of Forsyth and Danisiewicz (1985). Job satisfaction was measured by the intrinsic job satisfaction scale of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ, Weiss, Davis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). Also administered was a brief background and demographic data questionnaire.

Results indicated a significant positive relationship (r +.44, p $<$.001) between perception of the employing organization as participative and job satisfaction. First line nursing managers were more satisfied with their work when they perceive they had input into the formulation of organization's policies. Professional autonomy was not related significantly to either perceived organizational participativeness or job satisfaction. However, the discrepancy between how participative the managers would like their employing organization to be and their view of how participative it is currently was related positively to professional autonomy (r =.18, p $<$.05) and negatively to job satisfaction (r = $-$.34, p $<$.001). Thus managers who believed that they should have substantial autonomy from their employing organization were likely to be relatively dissatisfied with their work and likely to desire a larger role in determining policies.

The findings were interpreted as suggesting that first line managers tend to be more satisfied with their work when their employing organizations are perceived as relatively participative.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: B, page: 1353.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1991.

School code: 0055.