Leadership style and nurse’s intention to quit at Volta Regional Hospital

Abstract

Leadership style plays a role in staff intention to quit. The study examined the relationship between leadership styles and nurses’ intention to quit at the Volta Regional Hospital. Specifically, the study assessed the perceived leadership style(s), analysed the relationship between transaction leadership style and nurses’ intention to quit and also examined the relationship between transformational leadership style and nurses’ intention to quit. Descriptive design and the quantitative approach were employed. The sample size of the study was one hundred and sixty-five (165) nurses out of a population of two hundred and sixty-two (262) nurses, which was determined using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination formula. Data were collected using questionnaire. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to measure transactional and transformational leadership styles; and that of Nurses intention to quit was a four-item measure by Mobley (1982). The questionnaire assumed a five point Likert scale, from ‘1 (least agreed) to 5 (highest agreed)’. Questionnaires were self-administered. Simple random sampling technique was used. From the findings, the study concluded that transactional leadership style was the perceived leadership style at the Volta Regional Hospital; transactional leadership style and nurses’ intention to quit suggest a positive moderate level of correlation, and transformational leadership style and nurses’ intention to quit suggest a negative moderate level of correlation. It was recommended that Volta Regional Hospital should initiate policies that will intensify the need for the individual considerations, inspirations, intellectual stimulations, and personal development of nurses.