Relationship Between Head Nurses' Leadership Styles and Staff Nurses' Job Performance

Abstract

Nurses play a vital role in providing care across all levels of the healthcare system and represent a large part of hospital operating costs. Despite the crucial role they play in delivering high-quality healthcare, there is still much to be learned about their performance and contribution. Unfortunately, policymakers and managers often overlook the importance of nursing care. Therefore, optimizing nurses' performance in healthcare settings is essential to ensure the quality of care and patient well-being. This study aimed to determine the relationship between head nurses' leadership styles (established via staff nurses' points of view) and staff nurses' job performance (according to the head nurse's opinion) and find out the relation between the head of nurses' leadership styles and their demographic characteristics, as well as find out the relationship between staff nurses ' job performance and their demographic characteristics. A descriptive (correlational) research study design was used. This study was conducted in Al-Najaf city hospitals. The study subjects included (51) head nurses and (350) staff nurses working in all units of selected hospitals. A non-probability (convenience) technique was used to collect data. Data collection tools were a leadership styles questionnaire and a job performance questionnaire, in addition to a socio-demographic data questionnaire. The results of our study revealed that there is a highly significant intermediate positive correlation between leadership styles and job performance scores. Also, there is a significant relationship between the leadership style utilized by the head of nurses and their marital status. In addition, the current study did not find a relationship between staff nurses' job performance and their socio-demographic data. The study recommends that leadership and management training should be considered a prerequisite for head nurses to occupy their position. It also recommended the need to develop a periodic evaluation system for evaluating the job performance of nursing staff to provide health institutions with a database about the job performance levels of nursing staff.