A study of nurses’ job satisfaction: The relationship to professional commitment and friendship networks

We suggest that employees’ job satisfaction has relationship to friendship network other than professional commitment, and argue that friendship network in the same ward and across wards will have different effects on employees’ job satisfaction. A cross-sectional survey design utilizing questionnaires was selected to fulfill the research objectives. All of the 405 nurses in the En Chou Kong Hospital were surveyed. Three hundred and three nurses completed the questionnaire representing a response rate of 74.8%. The instruments included friendship network nomination, professional commitment scale, and nurses’ job satisfaction scale (NJSS). The regression model of job satisfaction was constructed, using friendship network variables in the ward and across wards and professional commitment as independent variables. R square for each model is 0.22-0.36 for the four dimensions of job satisfaction. Professional commitment is the robust predictor. The efficiency of friendship network in the ward is a good predictor, while it is negative related to satisfaction of work load. Further, the indegree in the ward is negative related to work load. Implication was discussed.