Perceived Leadership Styles of Nursing Management and Associated Factors among Nurses working in Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia

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there have been limited researches in Ethiopia regarding perceived leadership style of nursing management; but they are outdated, used a single variable and also used correlational research design which hinder the results less explanatory.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.