The Impact of Leader-Member Exchange Quality, Empowerment, and Core Self-evaluation on Nurse Manager's Job Satisfaction

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to test a theoretical model linking nurse managers' perceptions of the quality of the relationship with their supervisors, and empowerment to job satisfaction, and to examine the effect of a personal dispositional variable, core self-evaluation, on the relationships among these variables. BACKGROUND DATA: Nursing leadership roles have been transformed as a result of dramatic changes within healthcare in the past decade, yet research on the nature of nurse manager work life in current work environments is limited. METHODS: A nonexperimental, predictive design was used in a sample of 141 hospital-based nurse managers obtained from a provincial registry. RESULTS: Approximately 40.4% of the variance in job satisfaction was explained by leader-member exchange quality (LMX), empowerment, and core self-evaluation. CONCLUSION: Higher quality relationships with their immediate supervisor were associated with greater manager structural and psychological empowerment and, consequently, greater job satisfaction. Core self-evaluation played a strong significant role, affecting all components of the model. The results suggest that both situational and personal factors are important determinants of satisfying work environments for nurse managers.