Background: Nurses' power distance orientation shows how they accept
inequality between levels and positions. It shapes their views of, and interactions with
their managers and leaders in work environment. Nurse leaders often try to empower
their staff by sharing knowledge, responsibility and power with them to increase their
energy, investment in their work and motives to speak up. Aim: The study aims to assess
staff nurses' power distance orientation, empowering leadership and its relation to their
promotive and prohibitive voice. Design: descriptive, correlational research design was
used to conduct this study. Setting: study was conducted in four main critical care units at
Benha University Hospital. Sample: A simple random sample consisted of 110 staff
nurses. Instruments: Three instruments were used in this study; Power distance
orientation scale, empowering leadership questionnaire, and promotive and prohibitive
voice questionnaire. Results: About half of staff nurses reported high power distance
orientation and moderate empowering leadership, and the highest percentage of them
have both promotive and prohibitive voice. Conclusion: There is a positive significant
correlation between staff nurses' power distance orientation and promotive and
prohibitive voice. Also, empowering leadership especially its development category
signifcantlly and positively correlated with both promotive and prohibitive voice.
Recommendation: Based on study finding it is recommends that managers and leaders in
health care organizations should provide staff nurses with: Right mix of knowledge,
information, rewards and power for energizing them to participate in decision making.
Training programs in how power distributed between different classes to be able to build
identity adjustments and to promote respect, and loyalty to their supervisors. |
