Staff Nurse Empowerment and Effort-Reward Imbalance

An expanded model of Rosabeth Moss Kanter's Structural Theory of Organizational Behaviour is tested by examining the relationship between nurses' empowerment and their perceptions of effort-reward imbalance by examining how nurses' perceived their work to have more efforts than rewards under Siegrist's guidelines.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test an expanded model of Rosabeth Moss Kanter's Structural Theory of Organizational Behaviour (Kanter 1977; Laschinger, Finegan, Shamian and Wilk 2001) by examining the relationship between nurses' empowerment and their perceptions of effort-reward imbalance (Siegrist 1996). A sample of 112 staff nurses employed in teaching hospitals in Ontario participated in this study (58% return rate). A descriptive correlational survey design was used to collect data by eLiciting responses to five self-report instruments: the Conditions of Work Effectiveness II, the Job Activities Scale II, and the Organizational Relationships Scale II (Laschinger, Finegan, Shamian and Wilk 2001), the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) scale (Siegrist and Peter 1999a) and a demographic questionnaire. Staff nurses were only moderately empowered, and 24.1% perceived their work to have more efforts than rewards, according to Siegrist's guidelines.