Leader behavior impact of staff nurse empowerment, job tension, and work effectiveness

Objective: The authors tested a model linking specific leader-empowering be haviors to staff nurse perceptions of workplace empowerment, occupational s tress, and work effectiveness in a recently-merged Canadian acute care hosp ital. Summary Background Data: An integration of Kanter's organizational empowerm ent theory and Conger and Kunungo's model of the leader empowerment process constituted the theoretical framework for the study Few published studies were found in which specific leader behaviors were linked empirically to st aff nurses' workplace empowerment. Methods: Staff nurses (n = 537) were surveyed shortly after a merger of two large tertiary hospitals. Structural equation modeling techniques were use d to test the proposed model. Results: Leader-empowering behaviors significantly influenced employees' pe rceptions of formal and informal power and access to empowerment structures (information, support, resources, and opportunity). Higher perceived acces s to empowerment structures predicted lower levels of job tension and incre ased work effectiveness, The amount of explained variance in the final mode l was 42%, Conclusions: Support for the model tested in this study highlights the impo rtance of nurse managers' leadership behaviors within current turbulent hea lthcare organizations.