The critical managerial capabilities of medical and nursing managers in an Israeli hospital
| Pages | 81-102 |
| Date | 07 April 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-12-2012-0019 |
| Published date | 07 April 2015 |
| Author | Ana Shetach,Ohad Marcus |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
The critical managerial
capabilities of medical and nursing
managers in an Israeli hospital
Ana Shetach
Department of Health Systems Management,
The Max Stern Academic College of Emek-Yezreel, Mizra, Israel, and
Ohad Marcus
Department of Psychology, The Max Stern Academic College of Emek-Yezreel,
Mizra, Israel
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of
medical and nursing managers, in a Christian-affiliated hospital in Israel, in order to promote the job
satisfaction of their subordinates.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were gathered via questionnaires, administered to 107
doctors and nurses of a small Christian-affiliated hospital in Israel, regarding the job satisfaction of the
respondents, and their evaluation of the managerial capabilities of their medical and nursing superiors.
Correlations and regressions were carried out on the data.
Findings –Overall managerial capabilities of medical and nursing managers were shown to be
significantly related to how their subordinates felt about their teams and about their work. The results
suggest differences between nurses and doctors. When analyzed for the two dimensions of managerial
capabilities and the two dimensions of job satisfaction, the results were significant for the nurses, but
not significant for the doctors. When tested for Christians vs non-Christians, the results for the nurses
were the same as in the sample as a whole; whereas for the doctors, there were differences between the
two religious groups.
Research limitations/implications –The sample is small and culturally specific, thus limiting the
generalization potential of this study.
Practical implications –Findings of this research may have practical implications regarding
hospitals’recruitment, promotion, instruction and follow-up policies.
Originality/value –This study sheds light on the issue of hospital management and leadership
within a specific cultural-religious setting, which has not been previously investigated.
Keywords Hospital medical and nursing managers, Job satisfaction, Managerial capabilities,
Religious affiliation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Hospitals can be and often are extremely demanding work environments. Beyond
exercising their professional skills and experience, doctors and nurses serving in
managerial positions are expected to lead teams, deal with immediate, critical and
unexpected organizational and unit-based issues, as well as to undertake strategic
plans and long-range projects and to lead change processes, all of which require
effective managerial qualities, including leadership traits. The focus of this study is the
managerial capabilities exercised by medical and nursing superiors, as determined by
the job-satisfaction of doctors and nurses supervised by them.
The study investigates 107 doctors and nurses, all working in a small Christia n-
affiliated hospital in the North of Israel. It considers their satisfaction within their jobs
Evidence-based HRM: a Global
Forum for Empirical Scholarship
Vol. 3 No. 1, 2015
pp. 81-102
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
2049-3983
DOI 10.1108/EBHRM-12-2012-0019
Received 16 December 2012
Revised 4 September 2013
Accepted 6 September 2013
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2049-3983.htm
81
Critical
managerial
capabilities
on the one hand, and their evaluation of the managerial capabilities of their immediate
bosses (Medical Director, Departmental Managers, Head Nurse and Nurses-in-Charge),
on the other. The particular hospital chosen for this study is uni que not only in its
Israeli cultural setting, but also in the fact that its medical and nursing staff is
comprised of members of three religions, Christian Israeli-Arabs (the majority),
Muslims and Jews. The cultural aspect of this specific setting is observed and discussed.
2. Literature review
“Healthcare today harms too frequently and it routinely fails to deliver its potential
benefits”(Institute of Medicine Committee on Quality in Health Care, 2001, pp. 1-4).
Medical and nursing managers within hospitals, besides serving as professional role-
models and mentors among their medical team members and within their departments,
are expected to lead teams of doctors and nurses through ongoing short- and long-term
managerial assignments. Their medical and nursing professional training and
accumulated experience, can hardly prepare them for these complex and multiple
managerial tasks (Pillay, 2008; Storey and Buchanan, 2008). Thefollowing review begins
with the conceptual debate of management vs leadership in relation to individual, team
and organizational outcomes (Section 2.1). Past research on the relationship between job
satisfaction and organizational effectiveness is then surveyed (Section 2.2). A review of
the published material regarding the above two issues within Healthcare and Hospital
settingsthen follows (Section 2.3).The effects of culturalcontexts and the specific cultural
setting of the research hospital are examined (Section 2.4). Hypotheses are presented in
each section and the focus of the present research is highlighted (Section 2.5).
2.1 Management vs leadership in relation to effective outcomes
Human resource management and organizational behavior theories suggest that
the proper use of people enhances organizational effectiveness. Leadership within
organizations has been studied in terms of individual traits, leader behavior, interaction
patterns, role relations, followers’perceptions, influence over followers, influence on
task goals, and influence on organizational culture (Yukl, 1989). Various leadership
theories have been developed over the years (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985; House, 1977;
Vroom and Yetton, 1973; Yukl, 1981, 1989, 2008). The construct of transformational
leadership (TL) (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985) has gained enormous popularity among both
researchers and practitioners. Research has clearly demonstrated that perceptions
of TL are positively related to a wide assortment of organizational outcomes and
that these relationships are highly robust, generalizing across organizational levels,
cultures, and sample populations (Bass, 1997). Reddin (1988, 1990), on the basis of
previous work of Fleishman (1953) and Halpin and Winer (1957) develo ped a leadership
model, which focusses on two basic dimensions of leadership: task orientation and
relationships orientation.
“Management,”in comparison to “leadership,”is focussed on making decisions
and handling the process of their implementation (Adizes, 2004, 2013). Yukl (1999)
pointed out that theories of transformational and charismatic leadership provide
important insights regarding the nature of effective leadership; however, most of the
leadership theories have conceptual weaknesses that reduce their capacity
to explain effective leadership within organizational management. On the basis of
the categorizations of the various dimensions of management by Yukl (1989, 1999,
2008), Reddin (1988, 1990) and Adizes (2004), three major dimensions of managerial
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