Abstract:
Background: Leadership is a complex process of motivating people to act, providing support, and motivation to achieve mutually negotiated goals. Studies indicated that health system failures in sub-Saharan Africa are due to ineffective leadership capacity. Lack of effective leadership practice among nurse managers was contributing factor for lack of morale and led to staff turnover, shortage, and increased health care costs.
Objective: The aim of this study is to assess perception towards managers’ leadership practice and associated factors among nurses working at Jimma Town public health facilities, 2021.
Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 nurses at Jimma Town public health facilities from August 16-September 16, 2021. Semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Simple random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data were entered to Epidata manager version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. Descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariable linear regression were used to describe and identify factors associated with nurses’ perception of their managers’ leadership practice. Variables having p-values<0.05 were considered as statistically significant association with the outcome variable. The result of study was presented in text, table & graph.
Result: Out of 422 estimated participants, 403 fully responded with a response rate of 95.5%. Accordingly: 125(31%), 164(40.7%), and 114(28.3%) of nurses have low, moderate, and high perception towards their managers’ leadership practice respectively. Lack of training on leadership (β=-5.47, 95%CI: -8.55, -2.40), organizational commitment (β=0.52, 95%CI: 0.36, 0.68), innovative work behavior (β=1.1, 95%CI: 0.92, 1.25), and job-related stress (β=-0.13, 95%CI: -0.22, -0.04) were associated factors with nurses’ perception towards their managers’ leadership practice.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Only less than one-third of nurses have high perception towards their managers’ leadership practice. Lack of training on leadership, organizational commitment, innovative work behavior, and job-related stress were factors associated with nurses’ perception of their managers’ leadership practice. Further study is needed for a better understanding of nurses’ perception of their managers’ leadership practice using mixed method.
