The Development of an Innovative Work Behavior Scale for First-line Nurse Managers in Private Hospitals

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the components of an innovative work behavior scale for the first-line nurse managers of private hospitals. A sample of 242 first-line nurse managers was recruited from 19 private hospitals. The research instrument was De Jong and Hartog’s Innovative Work Behavior Scale with 17 question items and a 5-point rating scale. Content validity was validated by a panel of experts;the content validity index, the reliability, and the power of discrimination met the criteria.The statistics used for construct validity were exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study found that the Innovative Work Behavior Scale consisted of 16 items with four components: 1) surveying of innovative
development ideas behavior (idea exploration) with five indicators, 2) innovative ideaforming behavior (idea generation) with three indicators, 3) adoption of innovative behavior (idea championing) with four indicators, and 4) implementation of innovative behavior (idea implementation) with four indicators. The reliability of each scale component was good. The construct validity of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the development of innovative work behavior among first-line nurse managers was consistent with the empirical data. Therefore, the results of this study could be used in the development of an innovative work behavior scale for first-line managers of nursing organizations.