Nursing Directors' Leadership Styles and Faculty Members' Job Satisfaction in Taiwan

ABSTRACT Nursing leaders in Taiwan seldom receive the leadership training necessary to lead an academic organization. As a result, leaders may experience burn out, and dissatisfaction among faculty may increase. This study examined nursing faculty members’ perceptions of nursing directors’ leadership and their job satisfaction levels to understand how perceptions of leadership styles related to job satisfaction in Taiwan. This descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional study used self-administered questionnaires. Transformational leadership theory supported the research framework. Nine schools with nursing programs awarding diplomas to students participated in this study. A total of 175 questionnaires were returned (72% response rate). The findings indicated that Taiwan’s nursing directors tend to display transformational leadership more frequently in their workplaces and that Taiwan’s nursing faculty members are moderately satisfied in their jobs. In addition, nursing faculty in Taiwan are more satisfied with directors who practice the leadership style of attributed idealized influence. AUTHORS Received: January 16, 2005 Accepted: August 29, 2005 Dr. Chen is Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Utah Valley State College, Orem, Utah, and Dr. Baron is Professor and Chair, Division of Educational Administration, School of Education, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota. Address correspondence to Hsiu-Chin Chen, PhD, EdD, RN, Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Utah Valley State College, 800 West University Parkway, Office AD205C, Orem, UT 84058-5999; e-mail: chenhs@uvsc.edu.