Abstract:
Background: There are various styles of leadership that nurse managers have
demonstrated to lead staff nurses in hospital. Even if there have been limited
researches in Ethiopia regarding perceived leadership style of nursing management;
but they are outdated, used a single variable and also used correlational research
design which hinder the results less explanatory. Therefore, this study aimed to assess
nurses’ perception towards leadership style of nursing management and associated
factors in Jimma university medical center.
Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted from February 15-
June 25, 2022 among nurses at Jimma university medical center. Simple random
sampling technique was done and self-administered questionnaire was used to collect
data from a total of 421 nurses. Data were entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and
exported to SPSS version 26 for further analysis. Factor analysis was done to create
factor scores. Linear regression with stepwise variable selection method was done to
build the final multiple regression model. Variables with <0.25 P-values during
simple linear regression were entered to multiple linear regression. Statistical
significance was declared at p-value <0.05.
Results: A total of 384 nurses participated in this study which makes a response rate
of 91.2%. The percentage mean score (%SM) of perceived leadership styles of
nursing management was found to be 54.8%, 49.6%, 44.9% and 54.4% for
transformational, transactional, laissez-faire and democratic leadership style
respectively.
Conclusions: Jimma university medical center nurses perceived their managers
leadership style as transformational more than other leadership styles. Educational
level, Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, perceived
organizational support and personal characteristics of nurses are factors significantly
associated. Therefore, the institution should work on strategies in improving the
satisfaction of nurses; by providing additional supports.
