Faye Anderson studied empowerment, job satisfaction, and professional governance in hospitals with and without shared governance in this 2000 doctoral dissertation.

Faye Anderson, RN, DNS, CNAA. Empowerment, Job Satisfaction, and Professional Governance of Nurses in Hospitals with and without Shared Governance: A Descriptive Correlational and Comparative Study. Doctoral dissertation (2000), School of Nursing, Louisiana State University Medical Center; New Orleans, LA.

Abstract

Empowering staff nurses through strategies such as shared governance has been proposed as critical to improving quality care and containing costs. This descriptive comparative, correlation study aimed to determine whether significant differences exist in empowerment, professional governance, and job satisfaction among staff nurses in a hospital with shared governance (SG) compared to those in a hospital without it (NSG). A second purpose was to explore the relationship among these three indicators. Klakovich’s revised Model of Registered Nurse Empowerment provided the conceptual basis for the study of staff nurses in two southern hospitals. Of a possible 802 nurses, 183 participated: 148 (32% response rate) from the SG setting and 35 (10.3%) from the NSG setting. Participants completed three survey instruments: the Index of Professional Governance, the Reciprocal Empowerment Scale, and the Index of Work Satisfaction.

Statistical analysis included multiple analysis of variance and Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Nurses in the SG setting scored significantly higher in overall governance, empowerment, and job satisfaction than those in the NSG setting. Notably, demographic variables did not impact the results. The researchers found a moderate significant relationship between governance and job satisfaction, as well as between governance and empowerment, in both groups. Furthermore, a high significant relationship emerged between empowerment and job satisfaction in both groups.

Overall, the results suggest that shared governance promotes empowerment and job satisfaction. However, because the potential sample from the NSG setting may differ in their views from the small number who actually participated, readers should interpret the results with caution.