The Relationship Between Caring Leadership, Nursing Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intentions

Caring is considered as central to the practice of nursing and is an essential component of the clinical practice of nurses involved in direct patient care. However, less attention is given to caring in the practice of nurse administrators. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to investigate the relationship between caring leadership demonstrated by frontline nurse managers to nursing job satisfaction and turnover intentions. This study provides empirical evidence that supports the utilization of caring leadership which, can potentially improve job satisfaction and minimize turnover intentions. The Watson's theory of human caring and the Maslow's hierarchy of human needs were used as the theoretical foundation for the study. The participants of the study were 183 registered professional nurses employed at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, located in Northern New Jersey. The data were collected using the Caring Factor Survey-Caring of Manager (CFS-CM), Kuopio University Hospital Job Satisfaction Scale (KUHJSS), and the Anticipated Turnover Scale (ATS). Data were analyzed using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis. The study demonstrated a statistically significant correlations between caring leadership and high job satisfaction scores among registered nurses ( r = .728, p < .001), a statistically significant negative relationship between caring leadership behaviors and turnover intentions (r = .372, p < .001), and finally a statistically negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions (r = .343, p < .001). The results of the research study suggests that caring leadership have an impact on nursing job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Keywords : Caring Leadership, Nursing, Job Satisfaction, Turnover