Ethical leadership and decision authority effects on nurses' engagement, exhaustion, and turnover intention.

AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and turnover intention in the nursing profession by exploring the antecedent effects of ethical leadership and job components such as decision authority. BACKGROUND: Emotional exhaustion, low work engagement, and high turnover intention are prevalent issues in the nursing profession. The experience of feeling overworked has led to feelings of burnout and low morale among nurses in Ireland, which has prompted the authors to identify potential variables that reduce these outcomes-in this case, ethical leadership and decision authority. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used across three hospital sites. METHODS: A cross-sectional sample of 89 nurses was recruited from three Irish hospitals to capture the experience of nurses between December 2017 - February 2018. Hypotheses were tested using path model analysis. RESULTS: Ethical leadership positively predicted decision authority among nurses. Ethical leadership also had an indirect effect on all three outcome variables (work engagement, exhaustion, and turnover intention). Further effects were noted in relation to the mediators in relation to the three outcome variables. Decision authority had a positive effect on work engagement and related to lower turnover intention. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated the role of ethical leadership as a mechanism to positively affect job control and work experience outcomes for nurses at work. Ethical leadership style in hospitals and providing nurses with the authority to make decisions can improve their work experience and help to engage, support, and retain nurses. IMPACT: The study found support for the positive role of ethical leadership in relation to decision authority and as a positive predictor of work engagement, negative predictor of emotional exhaustion, and turnover intention among nurses.

Psychometric Properties and Calibration of the SPOREEM (Students' Perception of the Operating Room Educational Environment Measure).

OBJECTIVE: The experience in the operating room is considered as a crucial element affecting medical students' satisfaction with workplace-based training in surgery. We developed the "Students' Perception of the Operating Room Educational Environment Measure" (SPOREEM) and applied the approach of Item Response Theory to improve accuracy of its measurement. DESIGN: Psychometric analysis determined the factorial structure. Using Item Response Theory, item thresholds were calculated on response option levels. Sum scores in the factors were then computed using calibrated unit weights. SETTING: One hundred medical students from the University Medical Center in Goettingen, Germany, enrolled in a one-week surgery rotation completed the SPOREEM. RESULTS: The final 19-item questionnaire resulted in 3 factors: "Learning support and inclusion" (1), "Workplace atmosphere" (2), and "Experience of emotional stress" (3). Item calibration resulted in refinement of sum scores in the factors. Male students significantly rated factor 1 more positively. Factor 2 was perceived to a similar degree in all 3 surgical disciplines involved. Factor 3 was rated lower by those students planning a surgical field of postgraduate training. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a valid, reliable, and feasible tool to assess the overall educational climate of undergraduate training in the OR. Calibration of items refined the measurement.

Personality and Social Framing in Privacy Decision-Making: A Study on Cookie Acceptance.

Despite their best intentions, people struggle with the realities of privacy protection and will often sacrifice privacy for convenience in their online activities. Individuals show systematic, personality dependent differences in their privacy decision making, which makes it interesting for those who seek to design 'nudges' designed to manipulate privacy behaviors. We explore such effects in a cookie decision task. Two hundred and ninety participants were given an incidental website review task that masked the true aim of the study. At the task outset, they were asked whether they wanted to accept a cookie in a message that either contained a social framing 'nudge' (they were told that either a majority or a minority of users like themselves had accepted the cookie) or contained no information about social norms (control). At the end of the task, participants were asked to complete a range of personality assessments (impulsivity, risk-taking, willingness to self-disclose and sociability). We found social framing to be an effective behavioral nudge, reducing cookie acceptance in the minority social norm condition. Further, we found personality effects in that those scoring highly on risk-taking and impulsivity were significantly more likely to accept the cookie. Finally, we found that the application of a social nudge could attenuate the personality effects of impulsivity and risk-taking. We explore the implications for those working in the privacy-by-design space.