1.1 Introduction
Leadership style of Nurse Manager covers a very conspicuous position of group or medical centre conduct. Leadership is an essential tool in every medical centre. It provides the guide and motivation necessary for the success of any medical centre. Thus, leadership exists even in the library. The concept of leadership has been variously defined. Each definition is field to the author’s educational and professional background. It is the heart of an medical centre, which without; medical centre or group cannot properly function. It is obvious, that leadership ensures orderliness in an medical centre when an economic venture is undertaken by an medical centre with a view to maximizing economic opportunities it calls for person to supervise, direct, control, and co-operation to ensure effectives.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Leadership style has become an important topic of study in the management field. A good leader guides subordinates to work effectively toward organizational goals. According to Schimmoeller (2010) and Fatokun, Salaam and Ajegbomogun (2010), leadership styles can be viewed as series of managerial attitudes, behaviours, characteristics and skills based on individual and organizational values, leadership interests and reliability of employees in different situations. Organizational success in obtaining its goals and objectives depends on managers and their leadership style.
Job satisfaction is a significant aspect of success in any medical centre (Amburgey, 2005). Job satisfaction reflects the relative feelings, objective thoughts, and behavioral intentions of employees in an medical centre that help predict employee behavior (Brown et al., 2013). Therefore, Job satisfaction can be used as part of evaluations that lead to planning for medical centre improvement by presenting results from past strategies and future projections of employees. Pleased and motivated employees will guarantee the medical centre's long term success and it is believed that job satisfaction by all employees in any medical centre is directly related to their level of motivation (Hee et al., 2019).
Gupta and Garg (2017) in their research expressed that employees are dissatisfied with their supervisor's behaviour such as, paying salary, internal policies, promotional opportunities and medical centre management. One of the most important consequences of job dissatisfaction is the quantitative and the qualitative decline in performance. Naturally, this can lead to long absences, irregularities in entry and exit, underemployment and inaccuracies and will have a negative impact on performance. This means that people who suffer from severe job stress due to job dissatisfaction cannot be expected to perform well as a happy person and away from stress. Obviously, job satisfaction or dissatisfaction is only one of the factors affecting employees' performance, so in order to improve the performance of employees, more research is needed to identify the factors that influence employees' good performance and to find ways to overcome the obstacles, and ultimately increase the efficiency and effectiveness of medical centres (Fu & Deshpande, 2014).Certainly, skilled and efficient workforce is one of the most important tools to achieve the goals of the medical centre and plays an important role in increasing the efficiency of the medical centre.
Hospitals face the problem of how to strategize to achieve their goals in this competitive and changing healthcare environment. This often means constant organizational change to meet new health care challenges. Pressures to provide quality care while cost reduction measures are frequently implemented, results in high stress levels for nurses in the workplace. In addition, constant changes inevitably place considerable pressure on nurse leaders to both adapt and proactively engage their subordinates to embrace changes in the face of acute staff shortages and in some poor cases, that slowly evolving work environment. These combined factors within the hospital arena may contribute to the lack of satisfaction nurses experience with their jobs. As remarked by Sherman (2010), this scenario desperately calls for new leaders, leaders who inspire others with the vision of what can be accomplished. In order to move forward and survive in the face of these challenges, nurse managers and their subordinates must establish positive and mutually beneficial relationships that favour increased efficiency, productivity, and job satisfaction. Quality nursing leadership is seen as a predictor of job satisfaction (Giallonardo, Wong &Iwasiw, 2010).
There are several styles of leadership such as autocratic, bureaucratic, laissez-faire, charismatic, democratic, participative, situational, transactional, and transformational leadership. Not everyone agrees that a particular style of leadership will result in the most effective form of organizational behaviour. Different styles are needed for different situations and each leader needs to know when to exhibit a particular approach. Transformational and transactional leadership behaviours are known as the new leadership theories and are used by most academics who study organizational leadership (Kozier, 2007).By using appropriate leadership styles, managers can affect employee job satisfaction, commitment and productivity.
Previous studies on the relationship between nurse managers’ leadership style and nurse job satisfaction by Tobak and Koprak (2007) found that transformational leadership style exhibited by nurse managers in Israeli public hospitals was best suited for conflict management in an innovative but understaffed system. Similarly, a significant correlation was found to exist, in a study carried out by Sellgren (2007), between nurse manager’s leadership behaviour and job satisfaction in UTCH Calabar.
Therefore, in UTCH Calabar where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Leadership Styles of Nurse Manager and Nurses Job Satisfaction.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation leadership styles in hospitals is supposed to motivate the Nurses into been productive and perform optimally. Also, it is supposed to create a conclusive environment that enhances the productivity of the staff. Personal observation has shown that the Nurses of the hospital has not performed effectively and their productivity has not been encouraging. So many fingers points to the leadership and the leadership style adopted in the Hospital. The factors that appear to affect effective functioning of medical centres include management and leadership styles, unclear rules and regulations in the personnel policies, excessive work load, poor communication with supervisor cum unclear lines of communication, boredom and frustration resulting from lack of support from the superior, suitable career ladder, unchallenging jobs and inadequate fringe benefits as expected in the working condition.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Leadership Styles of Nurse Manager and Nurses Job Satisfaction in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine the leadership styles utilized by nurse managers as perceived by nurses at UTCH Calabar.
- To determine the level of job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
- To identify the relationship between transformational leadership styles and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
- To identify the relationship between transactional leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
- To identify the relationship between laissez-faire leadership style of nurse managers and nurses’ job satisfaction in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the leadership styles utilized by nurse managers as perceived by nurses at UTCH Calabar?
- What is the level of job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar?
- What is the relationship between transformational leadership styles and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar?
- What is the relationship between transactional leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar?
- What is the relationship between laissez-faire leadership style of nurse managers and nurses’ job satisfaction in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant relationship between transformational leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
- H1: There is a significant relationship between transformational leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There is no significant relationship between transactional leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
- H1: There is a significant relationship between transactional leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
Hypothesis Three
- H0: There is no significant relationship between laissez-faire leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
- H1: There is a significant relationship between laissez-faire leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UTCH Calabar.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study will be of great significance to the nurse managers, nurse administrators, patients and the hospital. The finding from this study will provide a basis for the determination of appropriate leadership style(s) to be used by nurse managers, capable of enhancing job satisfaction nation-wide. Findings from this study can be utilized to educate nurse managers on effective leadership styles and how these styles affect job satisfaction of nurses. By implementing preferred leadership styles, job satisfaction of nurses will increase, lowering turnover rates in hospitals and an overall decrease in the amount of money spent for hiring and orientating new employees.
For nurse administrators, the results of this study have numerous implications for management practice. Nurses’ satisfaction will be seen by the patient in the form of increased patient care quality. This will in turn create increased patient satisfaction and will reflect a positive view of the hospital by the community. The hospital will also benefit from the satisfaction of registered nurses as seen by an increase in productivity, efficiency and retention.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Leadership Styles of Nurse Manager and Nurses Job Satisfaction in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Nurse Managers: refers to nurses who are in-charge of wards/units.
Job Satisfaction: refers to the feeling a nurse has about the job being performed.
Leadership: The process or act of influencing staff to work with zeal and confidence towards achieving the objectives of the library.
Leadership Style: As use in this study, implies the way which influence process is exercised. It is the characteristics ways in which the leadership relates to his subordinates or employees.
Effectiveness: This implies the ability of an medical centre in achieving its objective. It is doing the right thing.
Efficiency: This is the optimum level o9f a given resources which the medical centre may fully utilize to produce a given unit of output/ waste. However, it is act of doing things right.
Situational Leader: As used in this study mean leadership styles depending on the circumstances that arise at particular time in a given medical centre so as to attain the medical centre target.
Transactional Leadership: refers to all leadership styles that are strictly production centred and includes autocratic and bureaucratic leadership styles.
Laissez-faire Leadership: refers to all leadership styles that are passive in nature whereby the leader adopts a hands-off approach to leadership.
Transformational Leadership: is a synthesis of all leadership styles that are essentially employee oriented and includes participatory, democratic, charismatic and situational leadership styles.
