Leader-member exchange, organizational identification and the mediating role of job involvement for nurses.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to explore the relationship between leader-member exchange quality and organizational identification and the mediating role of job involvement in this relationship.

BACKGROUND: As a result of the fast-changing structures and increasing competition, healthcare organizations increasingly demand highly qualified nurses who also have positive work attitudes towards the job and the organization. Among these positive work attitudes, organizational identification affects nurses' job performance and, in turn, the quality of care and patient satisfaction. The quality of the relationship between nurse supervisors and nurses, which is examined in the leader-member exchange context, can be an important determinant for organizational identification. This relationship is also affected by nurses' job involvement.

METHOD: The sample consisted of 148 nurses working in a private general hospital. Questionnaires, which included measures for organizational identification, level of leader-member exchange quality, job involvement and questions about the demographic characteristics of the sample, were distributed in 2007. The response rate was 87%.

RESULTS: A statistically significant and positive relationship was found between leader-member exchange quality and organizational identification. The results also reveal that job involvement mediates the positive effects of leader-member exchange quality on organizational identification.

CONCLUSION: If nurse supervisors increase their awareness of the effects of their behaviours towards their nurses, they can increase the nurses' performance and achieve desired results through increasing job involvement and organizational identification.