The impact of psychological empowerment and organisational commitment on Chinese nurses’ job satisfaction

Abstract

Background: Research findings have shown that job satisfaction of Chinese nurses is at a low level. Limited studies have focused on the impact of psychological empowerment and organisational commitment on job satisfaction of Chinese nurses.

Aims: The aim of this study is to describe job satisfaction, psychological empowerment and organisational commitment of Chinese nurses and to explore the impact of psychological empowerment and organisational commitment on the nurses’ job satisfaction.

Methods: A total of 726 nurses were recruited in a convenience sample from 10 tertiary hospitals. Data were collected using four questionnaires including Job Satisfaction Survey, Psychological Empowerment Scale, Organisational Commitment Scale and Demographic Questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, correlation and stepwise multiple regression were used for data analysis.

Results: Nurses’ job satisfaction, psychological empowerment and organisational commitment were identified at moderate levels. Nurses’ job satisfaction and psychological empowerment were significantly different in terms of age and length of service; nurse job satisfaction varied with respect to marital status. Findings further indicated that nurse job satisfaction was positively correlated with psychological empowerment and organisational commitment. Psychological empowerment, organisational commitment and marital status were significant predicting factors of nurse job satisfaction.

Conclusions: This study provides evidence to help nursing managers and health policy-makers to develop intervention programs aimed at enhancing nurse job satisfaction and retaining nurses.

Keywords:

• job satisfaction
• organisational commitment
• psychological empowerment
• China
• nurse

Acknowledgements

This study was designed by Wen-Bin Zhou and Yan-Qiong Ouyang. Data collection and analysis and manuscript drafting were done by Wen-Bin Zhou and Hui Qu. The manuscript was revised by Yan-Qiong Ouyang.

We would like to thank Sharon R. Redding, RN, EdD, CNE, Visiting Professor, Wuhan University, School of Nursing, for her incise review of this manuscript. We are especially grateful to nurse managers of the 10 hospitals and all the nurses who participated in this study, and thank Professor Shu Zhang for her kind and professional statistical analysis; and Ms. Lihong Wan, Dr Hongling Shen and Dr Yuzhen Guo for their assistance in data collection. This study could not have been possible without their assistance.