Size matters - Personenmerkmale und Führung

Erfolg in der Führung ist nach dem aktuellen Stand der Forschung das Ergebnis eines komplexen Zusammenspiels von Eigenschaften, Einstellungen und Fähigkeiten der Führungskraft, ihrem Verhalten gegenüber den Geführten, deren Einstellungen und Fähigkeiten, sowie dem Kontext, der sich vor allem aus Merkmalen der Organisation und der Aufgabenstellungen ergibt. Das macht die Suche nach der idealen Führungskraft zu einer entsprechend schwierigen Aufgabe. Gefragt sind deshalb einfache Suchkriterien zur Eingrenzung des Kandidatenkreises, und es scheint, als wäre selbst die Körpergrösse hierzu ein untrügliches Merkmal. Daten aus den Haushaltsbefragungen der öffentlichen Statistik in Deutschland und der Schweiz legen diesen Schluss nahe: Führungskräfte überragen Angestellte ohne Führungsposition im Durchschnitt um mehr als einen Zentimeter. Das gilt vor allem für Männer, teilweise aber auch für Frauen

Institutional effects on nurses’ working conditions: a multi-group comparison of public and private non-profit and for-profit healthcare employers in Switzerland

Background: In response to the need for competitive recruitment of nurses resulting from the worldwide nursing shortage, employers need to attract and retain nurses by promoting their competitive strengths in their working conditions (WCS) and by addressing their competitive weaknesses. This study investigated workplace differences between public hospitals (PuHs), private for-profit hospitals (PrHs), socio- medical institutions (SOMEDs), home care services (HCs), private medical offices (PrOs) and non-profit organisations (NPOs), helping to provide a foundation for competition-oriented institutional employer branding and to increase transparency in the labour market for nurses. Methods: Data from the Swiss Nurses at Work study of the career paths of 11 232 nurses who worked in Switzerland between 1970 and 2014 were subjected to secondary analysis, assessing the effect of institutional characteristics on self-reported determinants of job satisfaction (such as WCS) using multivariate linear regression and post hoc tests with Bonferroni-adjusted significance levels. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the number of WCS in the original study. Results: Nurses at PuHs and PrHs were less likely to experience autonomy, flexibility of work hours and participation in decision-making than those at other workplaces. Although PuHs were rated higher than PrHs in terms of satisfaction with salary and advancement opportunities, they were associated with more alienating work factors, such as stress and aggression. SOMED workplaces were significantly more often associated with alienating conditions and low job satisfaction, but were rated higher than the other institutions in terms of participation in decision-making. The nurses’ ratings implied that PrO workplaces were more likely to offer a mild work environment, social support and recognition than other institutions, but that advancement opportunities were limited. NPO workplaces were associated with the highest degree of autonomy, flexibility, participation, recognition, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. In these respects, HC and NPO workplaces received similar ratings, although the HC workplaces were associated with a significantly lower organisational commitment and significantly lower job satisfaction. Conclusions: Due to their structural characteristics, NPOs, SOMEDs and HCs can attract nurses seeking greater self-determination, PuHs can attract career-oriented nurses, and PrOs and PrHs are likely to attract nurses through offering less-stressful working conditions

Competitive employer positioning through career path analysis ::the case of the Swiss nursing sector

Background: The global shortage of nurses has caused strategic employer positioning and strengthened employer branding to become progressively relevant addressing the increased competition in the recruitment of nurses. This study provides competition-oriented strengths-and weaknesses profiles for nurse attraction and attrition for the major types of healthcare institutions to advise on competitive employer positioning. Methods: We applied bivariate weighted logistic regressions with cluster-adjusted standard errors to evaluate 4844 employer changes of 3011 nurses participating in the nurses at work study, whereby the reasons to quit (RQs) acted as both predictors of the former and the follow-up type of employer. For each employer type, we introduce a coordination system allocating each workplace criterion along its push and implicit pull characteristics, given through the specific odds ratios, to derive different strategic implications for an organisation’s competitive nurse recruitment. Results : Depending on the employer type, workplace criteria were variously acting as push or pull factors in nurses’ career decisions. Conclusions : Nurses’ career choices are affected by experienced and presumed workplace characteristics associated with specific employer types. Becoming aware of these associations and experiences, employers should leverage workplace criteria with relatively strong pull or/and weak push characteristics by intensified communication measurements and criteria with relatively weak pull or/and strong push characteristics should be enhanced to a competitive level