Job satisfaction and intention to stay within community and residential aged care employees.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the different facets of job satisfaction that influence community care and residential care employees' intention to stay in the aged care workforce. METHODS: A survey of four organisations in Australia was undertaken. t-Tests were conducted to analyse differences between groups. Regression analyses were performed to examine the factors influencing intentions to stay in the workforce. RESULTS: Community care workers were more satisfied with various facets of job satisfaction including work on their present job, supervision, people in their present job and the job in general. There was a difference between how the various facets of job satisfaction influenced intentions to stay for residential care compared to community care workers. CONCLUSIONS: Both workers were satisfied with their work conditions and work to different extents. There is an opportunity for residential care to look to the practices within the community care sector to improve employees' intentions to stay.

Importance and performance of managerial skills in the Australian aged care sector - a middle managers' perspective.

AIM: This study examined the importance and performance of middle managers' skills to provide a starting point for a sector-wide leadership and management framework. BACKGROUND: There is an increasing consensus that the quality of management, leadership and performance of any organisation is directly linked to the capabilities of its middle managers and the preparation and on-going training they receive. METHOD: A total of 199 middle managers from three aged care organisations in Australia participated in a questionnaire conducted during 2010-2011. RESULT: This study found that middle managers perceived the need to develop their communication skills, self-awareness, change management, conflict resolution and leadership skills. CONCLUSION: Middle managers perceive a discrepancy between performance and importance of various managerial skills. This study demonstrated that provision of training needs to go beyond clinical skills development and further investigation into managers' needs is necessary, particularly considering the diversity of this critical group in organisations. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Future training opportunities provided to middle managers need to address the 'softer' skills (e.g. communication) rather than 'technical' skills (e.g. clinical skills). The provision of training in these skills may improve their performance, which may also lead to increased job satisfaction, continuity in leadership and management and ultimately improvements in the quality of care provided.