Individual-Level and Group-Level Relationships Between Organizational Characteristics, Work Characteristics and Psychological Work Reactions in Nursing Work: A Multilevel Study.

The aim of the current study was to analyze individual- and group-level effects of organizational characteristics and work characteristics on psychological work reactions in nursing. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,721 nurses working In 15 general hospitals in the Netherlands. Several multilevel analyses, with individuals (i.e., nurses) at the 1st level, units at the 2nd level, and hospitals at the 3rd level, were performed on the authors' hierarchical data. Nurses' intrinsic work motivation was particularly predicted by individual-level social support and also by individual-level decision authority. Nurses' emotional exhaustion could mainly be explained by individual-level workload, individual-level social support, and group-level decision authority. The authors concluded that most of the group-level effects of organizational and work characteristics did not differ from the individual-level effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)