Formal and informal power, access to work empowerment structures and intent to stay

Turnover of staff nurses is costly, and managers must address reasons for attrition. Empowerment has been related to turnover and intent to stay in the organization (Nedd, 2006). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among nurses’ perceptions of formal and informal power, access to work empowerment structures, and intent to stay on the job. This is a replication of Nedd’s study. The theoretical framework is Kanter’s (1977) Theory of Organizational Empowerment. The study will be conducted by randomly selecting 2,000 registered nurses from the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency registry list working in staff positions in an Indiana hospital. The Job Activities Scale (JAS) will measure formal power within the work environment (Spence Laschinger, Kutzscher, & Sabiston, 1993). The Organizational Relationship Scale (ORS) will measure informal power (Spence Laschinger et al., 1993). The Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire (CWEQ) (Chandler, 1986) will measure access to work empowerment structures: opportunity, information, support, and resources. Intent to stay on the job will be measured by four items (Kim, Price, Mueller, & Watson, 1996). Findings will provide information for nursing leaders to improve nurse retention through perceived empowerment.