Employee empowerment, work commitment and job satisfaction: A national survey for Taiwan's school nurses

Employee empowerment is an important organizational issue for health-related professionals. Empowered employees may increase their work commitment and job satisfaction to face extensive changes in current school health environments. The aim of the national survey for Taiwan's school nurses was to test the relationships between employee empowerment, work commitment and job satisfaction based on the cognitive empowerment model. This study used a cross-sectional design. Structured Questionnaires were used to collect data by post. Probability proportional sampling according various school sizes was used in this study to select subjects from all school nurses worked in elementary school and high schools in Taiwan. 501 school nurses were approached and 330 valid questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 65.6%. Study results revealed that the model fit very well (÷2=22.70(df=1), CFI=0.97, GFI=0.97, AGFI=0.68, RMSEA=3.37). The path model indicated that organizational empowerment had direct and indirect effects on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment play the mediating roles between organizational empowerment and job satisfaction. Besides empowerment, work commitment was the most predictor of job satisfaction for school nurses. If school nurses reported high commitment to stay in school they served, they would feel more satisfied with their job. The pivotal and importance of employee empowerment in creating and maintaining organizational commitment and job satisfaction for Taiwan's school nurses is reinforced by this research. Leaders in school health bureaus in Taiwan could develop empowerment education for school nurses as well as their colleagues in order to enhance their work commitment and job satisfaction.