Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to identify the kind of work environment that should be offered by hospital leaders to their nursing staff in Brazil to generate job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour within their field of expertise. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was applied to 171 nurses and 274 nursing technicians who work at five private hospitals in Brazil. Both factor analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the study model. Findings – The results indicate that to stimulate positive behaviours and attitudes among nursing staff, managers should mainly be concerned about establishing a clear and effective communication with their professionals to ensure role clarity, promote a good working environment and encourage relationships based on trust. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of the study are absence of the researcher while the questionnaires were filled out and the fact that the sample comprised respondents who made themselves available to participate in the research. Practical implications – This study contributes to elucidate the factors that can promote a good internal climate for nursing staff, assisting hospital leaders to face the huge managerial challenges of managing, retaining and advancing these professionals. Originality/value – The findings contribute to the body of knowledge in leadership among nursing professionals in developing countries. Hospital leaders in Brazil should encourage trusting relationships with nursing professionals through clear, effective and respectful communications, besides investing in team development and promoting a good working environment.
Conclusion and discussion
The dimensions of internal climate for nursing professionals have been investigated, as well as the dimensions of positive consequences in terms of their behaviours and attitudes. Based on the literature reviewed, the analytical model proposed relates some dimensions of the internal climate to the nursing professionals’ positive attitudes and behaviours measured by the PC index.
The results have indicated that six dimensions of internal climate contribute to explaining the nursing professional’s positive attitudes and behaviours measured by the PC Index: trust, camaraderie, role clarity, training & development and non-discrimination for nurses and nursing contingent for nursing technicians. These dimensions explain 41.20 per cent of the total variation of the PC index. Therefore, H1 has been partially confirmed. Figure 2 presents the final model.
Among the Brazilian nursing professionals interviewed, the dimension that most contributes to explaining the PC Index is role clarity followed by training & development, camaraderie, trust, non-discrimination, remuneration & benefits, relationship with the doctors and work infrastructure. The results also indicate that role clarity is more important to nurses than to nursing technicians.
