Führen in der Pflege. - Connexia

Abstract
Executives in health care face multiple challenges due to the organizational change and the
shifting demands in the public health sector. The job satisfaction of the employees, which
itself influences job performance and working morale, is highly contingent on the lea-
dership behavior of their direct supervisors.
The purpose of this thesis is to cover the current state of leadership behavior of supervisors
and the actual job satisfaction of employees in retirement and nursing homes in Vorarlberg.
Therefore, the newer paradigms of transformational and transactional leadership concern-
ing the leadership behavior of supervisors are used primarily. Besides covering the job
satisfaction of the employees connected to their supervisors, also the satisfaction connected
to working conditions and the task itself is covered and described.
Quantitative data was collected in a descriptive cross-sectional study, in which 329 mem-
bers of the nursing staff (having a professional license after GuKG) in retirement and
nursing homes in Vorarlberg were interviewed. The survey questionnaire used was the
German version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ).
The results of the conducted research show that leading responsibility of executives in
health care is found to be on a very high level. Altogether, the chart of transformational
leadership was rated better than the chart of transactional leadership. Further results inclu-
de high ratings in success criteria concerning the direct supervisor as well as the job satis-
faction of the nursing staff, relating to the aspects of leadership, the work itself and the
prevailing working conditions. This survey should provide a basis for continuative studies
on the topic of leadership in health care.
Keywords: leadership, job satisfaction, retirement and nursing homes, transformational
leadership.