The Relationships Between the Participatory Management Work Empowerment, and the Effectiveness of Patient Unit as Perceived by First – Line Nurse Managers, Private Hospitals

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationship between participatory management, and work empowerment and effectiveness of patient unit as perceived by first–line nurse managers in private hospitals. The target population was 100 first-line nurse managers.  Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 4 parts: general information, participatory management, work empowerment, and effectiveness of patient unit as perceived by first–line nurse managers. The content validity was 1 and the Cronbach’ a alpha coefficients of reliability were 0.97, 0.95 and 0.97. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics: percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics: Pearson’s product moment correlation.  The study found the following:

Overall, participatory management of first line nurse managers was at a high level (  = 3.97,  SD = 0.51), overall work empowerment was at a high level ( = 3.83, SD = 0.50), and overall effectiveness of patient unit was at a high level ( =3.70, SD = 0.50).  Analysis of relationships between variables revealed that participatory management had a positive and significantly high relationship (r = .710, p < .05) with effectiveness of Patient Unit as perceived by first-line nurse managers, and the relationship between work empowerment and effectiveness of Patient Unit as perceived by first-line nurse managers was also positively and significantly high (r = .732, p < .05)   

It is therefore recommended that the participative management support the development  of first-line nurse managers through work empowerment trainings outside the organization, in order to gain additional insight and knowledge on organizational development. Also, the management should promote the retention of employees, maintain appropriate staffing and workload and provide reasonable compensation. In return, personnel may exhibit utmost commitment and cooperation to the organization and provideeffective care for the wellbeing of patients.