Relationship between management styles and nurses’ retention at private hospitals

Abstract

Introduction: Management styles are an essential issue from both theoretical and managerial perspectives. However, success in nursing management is found in being flexible and adaptable to a variety of situations which increase quality of care. One of the best ways to ensure quality of care is to recruit and retain sufficient nursing staff. The study aimed to determine the relationship between management styles and nurses’ retention at private hospitals.
Methods: A descriptive correlational study was conducted in all inpatients units (n= 16) at three private hospitals with bed capacity more than 50 beds namely: El Salama New hospital, Alexandria New Medical Center, and El Shefaa hospital. All nurses with at least 3 months experience in the
previously mentioned settings were included in the study (n= 228). Profile of Organizational Characteristics (POC) developed by Likert et al. was used to measure nurses’ perception for management styles in their work unit. The questionnaire consists of 16 items classified into four parts called systems, which are exploitative/authoritative management style, benevolent/authoritative management style, consultative management style, and participative management style.
Results: The findings of this study show that more than half of the respondents perceived their manager to have a consultative management style. Alexandria New Medical Center has a greater retention time as compared to other two hospitals.

Conclusion: Management style and nurses’ retention were significantly interrelated in terms of exploitative/authoritative management style. Recommendation, the researcher recommended that hospital leaders should plan and implement effective strategies to promote nurse retention. This can be done through creating a work environment that is caring and conducive for the nurse’s professional practice.