Leadership style and job satisfaction of employees in a military hospital

OBJECTIVE To investigate the leadership style and the professional satisfaction of employees in a military hospital. METHOD The study was conducted during the period 4.5.2020 to 1.6.2020 with a convenience sample of the medical, nursing, administrative and technical staff of a military hospital. Data collection was conducted using a questionnaire to record the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5x) to measure leadership practice and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) to measure the level of professional satisfaction, all self-completed. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25.0. Statistical significance was set at p<0.01. RESULTS For the data collection 250 questionnaires were distributed and 156 were returned (response rate 62.4%), of which 16 (6.4%) were not fully completed. The final survey sample consisted of 140 respondents, the majority of whom were women (56.4%), aged between 46 and 50 years (20.0%), nurses (54.3%) and in the position of subordinate (75.0%). Most of the responding employees were married (52.9%), university graduates (45.7%), or had completed the School of Nursing Officers (32.9%), and most had a direct supervisor (57.1%). Correlations between variables resulted in 42 statistically significant associations. Positive correlation was detected between transformational leadership style and employees' satisfaction with their supervisor (r=0.714, p<0.01), their rewards (r=0.318, p<0.01), their colleagues (r=0.361, p<0.01), the nature of their work (r=0.228, p<0.01), and the communication within the organization (r=0.295, p<0.01). Conversely, the dimensions of job satisfaction were negatively correlated with laissez-faire leadership style (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS The study results indicate that the leadership style was mainly transformational and transactional, and to a lesser extent, laissez-faire. The most important factors in determining job satisfaction for the participants of the study were empathy for the boss and colleagues and the nature of the work, and for the job dissatisfaction, the absence of promotion and additional benefits, and lack of increases in salary.