Abstract:
In organizations where there is a perceived lack of trust and respect between management and staff, employees also may distrustful of the organization. Perceived lack of trust and respect leads to decreased job satisfaction and commitment to the organization’s goals and activities. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between nurses’ empowerment with organizational justice, respect, and trust in nursing management and subsequent job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The theoretical framework for this study is Kanter’s Theory of Organizational Empowerment (1993). A random sample will be used consisting of 200 nurses working in intensive care and medical-surgical units in urban hospitals in Central Indiana. The Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-II (CWEQ-II) will be used to measure nurses’ perceptions of access to six elements of structural empowerment described by Kanter (1977). Moorman’s (1991) Justice Scale will be used to measure interactional justice, while respect will be measured using Siegrist’s (1996) Esteem Scale. To measure nurses’ trust in management, Mishra’s (1996) 17-item Trust in Management Scale will be used.
Job satisfaction and organizational commitment will be measured using subscales from Williams and
Cooper’s (1998) Pressure Management Indicator. Results will provide hospital administrators and nursing management with information on relationships between empowering work structures and organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
