ole conflict and ambiguity experienced by nurse administrators in hospital organizations

Abstract

The purpose of. this study was to e~amine the relationship between the degree and type of role conflict and rol~ ambiguity experienced by top, mid, and first level nurse administrat~rs and the nurse administrator's hierarchical level in hospital organizationso A descriptive correlational design was employedo Th~ subj~tts consisted of 119 nurse administrators who participated in an administrative staff development program in 4 local hospitals Demographic data and role conflict and ambiguity scores were obtained· from information on self-report questionnaires tha~ were administered prior to imple~entation of the program. Role conflict and role ambiguit~ were calculated from.the · Role Conflict and Ambiguity Scale devised by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970). Analy~is of variance techniques were utilized to determine differences in the administrative group scores on role conflict and role ambiguity. Descriptive statistics were employed in additional analysis . to describe different types of role conflict the subjects were experiencing. No significant relationship was foun~ between the degree and _type· of role conflict experienced by the nurse administrators and their hierarchical level in thehospital organizations. Mid level nurse administrators reported significantly less role· a~biguity thari did top and first level administrators. All groups demonstrated distinct patterns ot role conflict type experiences.