THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG MOTIVATION, MANAGERIAL TALENT AND PERFORMANCE IN THE NURSING PROFESSION: DIFFERENCES ACROSS ORGANIZATIONAL LEVELS (NURSING MANAGEMENT).
Contributors: Clemson University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 181
Subjects: Health Sciences, Health Care Management.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Business Administration, Management.; Psychology, Industrial.
Description: This study examined the motivational needs of nurses and nurse managers and the relationships among motivational needs and job performance. The needs for achievement, power, and affiliation, as defined by David McClelland's trichotomy of needs theory of motivation, were assessed for a sample of 167 executive-level nurse managers, head nurses, staff nurses, and junior and senior nursing students. The Job Choice Exercise, an objective instrument based on the concepts of behavioral decision theory, was used to assess motivational needs, producing a 0.77 average measure of reliability.

Executive-level nurse managers had significantly higher needs for achievement than either need for power or need for affiliation. Likewise, head nurses had, on average, needs for achievement and affiliation that were higher than the need for power.

Staff nurses were found to have motivational needs profiles consistent with those of head nurses. The needs for achievement and affiliation were not significantly different from one another, but both were significantly (p $<$.05) greater than the need for power. Staff nurses did not have needs for affiliation that were significantly different from the needs for affiliation of the population in general. However, the need for affiliation of staff nurses was significantly (p $<$.01) positively related to job performance, controlling for years of clinical experience. Staff nurses' needs for achievement and power were not significantly related to performance.

This study found that, as one moves upward in the organizational hierarchy from staff nurse, to head nurse, to executive-level nurse manager, the relative strength of the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation do not change when moving from staff nurse to head nurse positions. However, the need for affiliation appears to play less of a role with respect to performance as a head nurse than it does as a staff nurse. Likewise, the need for power emerges as significantly related to managerial performance for head nurse but it is not significantly related to clinical performance for staff nurses. In moving from head nurse to executive-level nurse manager positions, the need for achievement emerges as the dominant need while the need for power appears to be even more strongly related to managerial performance for executive-level managers than it is for head nurses. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-01, Section: B, page: 0147.

Thesis (PH.D.)--CLEMSON UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0050.