Empowerment and Organizational Commitment in Long-Term Care Facilities
Open Access
- Author:
- Stalley, Samantha Grace
- Area of Honors:
- Health Policy and Administration
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Susan Diane Brannon, Thesis Supervisor
Susan Diane Brannon, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Rhonda Be Lue, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- psychological empowerment
organizational commitment
long-term care - Abstract:
- Retaining nurses has become high priority in the healthcare industry. The current supply of nurses is not adequate to meet demand. The aging of the American population and the approach of baby boomers reaching age sixty-five will increase the demand for nurses. Healthcare organizations, especially long-term care facilities, must retain their nurses to maintain an adequate supply of caregivers for their growing number of patients. Organizational commitment is an important factor in retaining nurses. This study explores the relationship of psychological empowerment of nurse supervisors and their subordinates, direct care workers, with organizational commitment of supervisors. If a significant relationship exists, managers of long-term care facilities have the ability to manipulate and improve the work environment of these supervisors and direct care workers to increase their commitment to their organization. To assess this relationship, cross-sectional survey responses from 500 supervisors and 5,000 direct care workers in long-term care facilities were used to calculate empowerment scores. Correlation and regression analyses were used to determine the significance of the relationship. This analysis indicates that supervisor organizational commitment is associated with supervisor empowerment. Direct care worker empowerment, however, is not related to supervisors’ organizational commitment. While no association with direct care worker empowerment exists, this analysis demonstrates the relationship between supervisor empowerment and their organizational commitment. Managers of long-term care facilities can utilize these findings to understand that psychological empowerment is important in retaining their nurse supervisors at a time when these employees will be in high demand.