Leadership styles and organizational climate perceived by the nursing staff of a public hospital in Bahía Blanca1

Abstract

Introduction: leading in health implies the ability to improve a service through different actors and changes that benefit the population. The work climate is a filter or intervening phenomenon that mediates between organizational system factors (structure, leadership, decision-making) and motivational tendencies that result in behavior that affects the organization in terms of productivity, satisfaction, turnover and absenteeism.

Objective: to describe the leadership styles and organizational climate perceived by the nursing staff of a public hospital in Bahía Blanca

Methodology: an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted from May to June 2021, in a public hospital in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. The sample consisted of 70 professional nurses . Two instruments were used, which have been previously validated by Cronbach's Alpha (.962 and .964).

Results: from a sociodemographic point of view, the prevalence of females stands out. 50 % of respondents were between 23 and 37 years old. similar values were found in the group of Bachelor's Degree in Nursing among the academic degrees. When the behavior of the questionnaires on Leadership and Organizational Climate was analyzed, 10 out of 12 indicators had neutral values. Interestingly, there were no indicators with negative values on average. Pearson's correlation coefficient was analyzed, as well as the level of statistical significance in each of the cases.

The study population was characterized by a prevalence of young females with a bachelor's degree in nursing and less than 10 years of seniority. The study found a close relation between leadership and organizational climate, although respondents reported neutrality in the overall perception of these two dimensions