A Survey Of Work Values And Organizational Commitment Of Nurses In Sichuan Province

Background: Now, a very high turnover of nurses aggravates the shortage of them. In this case, nurses will be forced to work overload, which would make them feel great tension and be more likely to commit faults. All of these factors will increase the workload for nurses and cause them to leave, and finally lead to a vicious recycle of nursing shortage. Fortunately, researches on the work values and organizational commitment of nurses will conduce to formulating right models for motivating nurses, and help to reduce their turnover. A lot of researches about management showed that mastering the mental characteristics of employees will help managers in motivating them. Of these mental characteristics, work values and organizational commitment are two important ones: Work values reflect one's needs for their work, and organizational commitment is stable index that can forecast one's behaviors such as absence and turnover. By investigating and analyzing work values and organizational commitment of nurses, managers can grasp critical factors that will affect nurses' tendency to leave, and then, aim at mobilizing them to reduce their possibility to leave, and finally, increase their job quality andwork efficiency. However, researches about work values and organizational commitment is few, especially in Chinese nursing field where nothing has been done for them. So, it is necessary to investigate them, which would provide information for selecting right way to motivate nurses and reduce their tendency to leave.Objective: To investigate the work values and the organizational commitment of nurses in third-first class hospitals and to analyze the correlation between the work values and the organizational commitment of nurses. To discuss the influence factors of the organizational commitment of nurses and to provide empirical data for motivating nurses and reducing their turnover, and finally improving their work efficiency.Subjects: Nurses of third-first class hospitals in Sichuan province who have been engaged in clinical job for more than 1 year. Nurses who are retired have been excluded.Method: The cross-sectional survey was used. 430 nurses were selected randomly from Nov to Dec in 2004. Their work values were assessed by the work values scale, and organizational commitment was measured by the organizational commitment scale.Statistical method:All data were input into computer and analyzed by spssl 1.0.The statistical method included: independent samples t-test, one-wayANOVA, Pearson inter-correlation, and multiple linear regression analysis. Results: The cognitive work values and affective work values of nurses are positively correlated with their continuance commitment > moral commitment and affective commitment; material work values of nurses are negativelycorrelated with their affective commitment. Nurses who are different in shifts and type of recruitment will differ from each other in their work values. Factors that affect continuance commitment of nurses are cognitive work values and night shifts. Factors that affect moral commitment of nurses are affective work values, job post and department. Factors that affect affective commitment are type of recruitment, shifts, department, cognitive work values, material work values, education, posts and affective work values. Conclusion:1. Encouraging nurses to pursue higher levels of work values will reduce their tendency to leave.2. Job responsibility, job security and esteem as a person should be integrated into the motivation of nurses.3. Paying attention to their work values will conduce to motivating nurses in hospitals.Suggestion for further study:1. Studies about the work values and organizational commitment of male nurses should be investigated and analyzed.2. Whether the reason why there is no statistical difference between nurses who are different in ages, work years, marriage, education, posts, job titles, department, is caused by sampling error should be confirmed.3. The result that temporary nurses show higher scores in affective work values and affective organizational commitment are different from those in other studies in and out of nation. The reason for the difference should be investigated and discussed.