THE CULTURE OF CAREGIVING AND AGGRESSION IN PSYCHIATRIC SETTINGS

Organizational culture was used as a general framework for a causal mo deling study examining the relationships of work environment with staf f beliefs about caregiving and aggression. Specifically, staff who per ceived the organization as emphasizing control at the expense of growt h and relationship issues would be more controlling in their approach to patients and perceive more aggression, A sample of 162 nursing staf f participated from three hospitals, The results indicated that 10% of Aggression was predicted by two model variables indicating control. D uring exploratory model testing however, age, sex, socioeconomic statu s and satisfaction with the hospital were all predictive of a controll ing belief about caretaking or aggression. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.