Transformational Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Non-Supervisory Nurses' Intention to Leave

The United States is currently experiencing a nursing shortage. To compound the problem, hospital nurses are leaving their organizations and executives are scrambling to figure out the reasons behind the increased turnover. Many factors are associated with nurses' intention to leave their current employment. Among these factors are job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work satisfaction, work setting, control over practice, salary, nurse-physician collaboration, job stress, and leadership style. Effective nursing leadership is an integral factor in the retention of hospital nurses and nurses who perceive their nursing leadership as participative and transformational may be more likely to be satisfied with their jobs

The purpose of this non-experimental exploratory (comparative) and explanatory (correlational) online survey research was to examine the relationship among nonsupervisory nurses' demographic and work profile characteristics, perceptions of transformational leadership, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and intention to leave. Empirical literature was reviewed for significant findings and theoretical literature about leadership theories, job satisfaction, organization commitment, and intention to leave were reviewed and served as guides to this study.

Three research questions and six hypotheses were examined. The survey instrument consists of six scales: an eight item Demographic Characteristics Scale, a six item Work Profile, a seven item Global Transformational Leadership Scale, a 21 item Revised Three Component Model of Organizational Commitment scale, a 31 item McCloskey-Mueller Satisfaction Survey, and a three item Intention to Leave Scale. The entire target population of full-time non-supervisory RNs at 10 Tenet South Florida hospitals were asked to participate in the study. Psychometric evaluation of measures were examined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and coefficient alphas. Independent t-tests and ANOVA, as well as Chi-square were used to answer the exploratory research questions. Multiple mediated regression analyses and multiple regression analyses were used to test the explanatory hypotheses.

Findings were partially supported. The role of affective commitment as a factor of organizational commitment, and the role of transformational leadership were evident in this study. Organizational Commitment (affective) and Job Satisfaction were significant explanatory variables of nurses' intention to leave. Future studies utilizing this model to examine factors that impact nurses' intention to leave is recommended.