The relationship of workplace empowerment and organizational commitment among First Nations and Inuit Health Branch nurses

Abstract

There is growing recognition of the relationship between the quality of nursing work environments and nursing work satisfaction and retention. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to test a model derived from Kanter's Theory of Structural Empowerment (1993) in a unique nursing population, describing the relationship between First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) nurses' perceptions of workplace empowerment and their commitment to the organization. A convenience sample of nurses (n=70) employed in isolated and semi isolated nursing stations in Northern Manitoba responded to the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire (CWEQ-II) and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Nurses in this study had moderate perceptions of structural empowerment and low affective commitment. This finding has important implications for the organization as affective commitment has the strongest relationship with employee retention, job satisfaction, and positive work outcomes. As hypothesized, total empowerment was positively correlated with affective commitment (r=.664, p.001). The implementation of structures that facilitate access to work related empowerment would be expected to increase affective commitment for this group of nurses.