Perception gaps for recognition behavior between staff nurses and their managers

Nurse managers play a critical role in improving the work environment. Important leadership characteristics for nurse managers include visibility, accessibility, communication, recognition, and support. The nurse manager’s recognition behaviors strongly influence the job satisfaction of staff nurses. In our previous study, we investigated how staff nurses perceived the nurse manager’s recognition behaviors and revealed that there was a divergence in practical approaches to these behaviors between the nurse manager and the staff. We assume that one factor causing this divergence could be perception gaps between the nurse manager and the staff. The aim of this study, therefore, was to uncover what types of perception gaps exist between the nurse manager and staff nurses and whether the background of staff nurses, such as years of experience or academic background, could affect the staff nurses’ perceptions. This quantitative, crosssectional study involved 10 hospitals in Japan. A total of 1425 nurses completed the questionnaire. The results showed that staff nurses considered “Respect job schedule preferences” to be the most important of the recognition behaviors. In contrast, nurse managers gave “Nurse manager meets with the staff nurses to discuss patient care and unit management” the highest score for importance. Four factors (marriage status, age, years of clinical experience, and training background) affected the professional awareness of recognition behaviors. Our results suggest that nurse managers need to consider these factors when they conduct recognition behaviors.