¶ … People often shift to other jobs when they feel unsatisfied. This is the case for nurses. Nurses have a high turnover rate in not just one country, but internationally. There is growing shortage of nurses because of lack of job satisfaction. Abualrub & Alghamdi performed a study back in 2012 determining whether leadership style had an impact on job satisfaction and retention rates. The article titled "The impact of leadership styles on nurses' satisfaction and intention to stay among Saudi nurses," pinned transactional leadership style against transformational leadership style, to see if one was more effective at creating higher job satisfaction in Saudi nurses. The authors used a myriad of tests for analysis, the response rate (slightly over half), generated a result that shows Saudi nurses favor transformational leadership style over transactional leadership style. This essay is not only a critique of the article but it also examines it through the positivist paradigm lens as a means of understanding the role of nursing and how the need for nursing plays a part in the overall reality of society. People consistently need medical attention and aside from doctors, nurses play a crucial role. Studies like this help those that wish to improve nursing retention rates, see objectively what kinds of leadership styles and other aspects of organizational management lead to higher job satisfaction for nurses and therefore decreased job turnovers or higher retention rates. Analysis of patterns and reactions helps build a better overall understanding of complex issues like job satisfaction.

Section A: Positivist Paradigm

Descarte originated positivist views. Although some believe it to be Galilieo. Within positivist paradigm, there are two beliefs, the nature of reality and the nature of knowing For example realist ontology assumes that apart from the individual or human knower, exists real world objects. Simplistically speaking, an objective reality exists (Bhandari, 2014). Within the belief of representational epistemology, this assumes individuals or humans can know of this reality as well as use symbols to precisely describe and elucidate this objective reality.

When applying this to the article, the authors use real world objects to show there is an objective reality. They generated a study where 600 Saudi nurses were questioned. From these around 308 replied. Their answers were kept confidential and anonymous removing potential subjective interpretation from the authors. They then used that data and analyzed it under their methodology, which also has a positivist paradigm influence.

Using numbers, data, to accurately explain and describe the objective reality of Saudi nurses against variables like transformational leadership style and job satisfaction provides excellent examples of representational epistemology. By the authors positing a reality apart from the reader's knowledge or awareness of it, it creates a positivist paradigm, providing an objective reality that the authors then compared their hypotheses to ascertain truth.

The authors or in this case researchers, predicted through a series of hypotheses that transformational leadership style, the new style of leadership equates to higher job satisfaction over the transactional leadership style or traditional style that has led to a nursing shortage in recent times. These hypotheses were then tested using SPSS 17 software and three out of the five were to shown to be true whereas two were not. The aim to discover the patterns, which was indeed that transformational leadership led to higher job satisfaction, is the aim of the positivist paradigm.

Empirical verification through the various series of tests like the MLQ-5x, the JSS, and the McCain's Intent to Stay Scale provided readers enough concrete data to realize the patterns and provide their own conclusions to the hypotheses. The researchers showed clearly how their assumptions were either proven or disproven through the data they gathered from the responses. The manner in which the researchers obtained the data, which was confidential and anonymous, led to research that was free of subjective bias, leading to successful objective analysis.

The researchers tested five hypotheses. The first one was the statement that transformational leadership style of nurse managers augmented a nurse's job satisfaction. Research supported this hypothesis as the MLQ-5X, a 45-question survey, showed the participants favored transformational leadership style of transactional, but also believed it led to higher job satisfaction. A questionnaire like...

Since hypothesis, #1 was tested to be true and #2 is dependent on the results of #1, then #2 is proven true as well. Since transformational leadership style led to higher job satisfaction, transaction led to lower. The Job Satisfaction Survey or JSS also provided data to cement the conclusions to these two hypotheses.
The third and fourth hypotheses which were proven to be wrong or false consisted of both leadership styles, transactional and transformational and whether they decreased or increased a nurse's intent to stay at work. Through McCain's Intent to Stay Scale, their results showed intent to stay had little to no effect from leadership styles. Regardless of how the nurses were led, it did not change their intent to leave. This will be explained in more depth later on in section B.

The fifth and final hypothesis stated as the level of a nurse's job satisfaction increases, so will a nurse's intent to stay. This was proven true because job satisfaction is directly correlated to intent to stay. Things like wages, benefits, fringe benefits, and quality of care, were major facets of the nurse's desire to stay or not and led to either low or high job satisfaction. All of the tests used helped realize the answer for this hypothesis. The data shows the nurses within the six hospitals chosen, had moderate job satisfaction and this was not affected by leadership style. Although only public hospitals were selected, it does provide a clear analysis.

B. Summary of research approach (es) taken in the article

In the article, the researchers set to see what leadership style factors into higher job satisfaction. The approach came from the direction of job satisfaction and intention to stay as a direct consequence of leadership style from nursing managers and nursing administrators. "Nursing managers are responsible for the retention of their staff nurses once they are recruited; thus leadership styles exhibited by leaders are a major contributing factor to a nurse's decision to stay in a current position, transfer, or seek employment elsewhere" (ABUALRUB & ALGHAMDI, 2012, p. 669). Intention as defined by McCain (1987) means the all likelihood of someone staying in his or her current job. The authors wanted to correlate leadership style to job satisfaction to intention to stay.

When leadership provides catalyst for intent to stay there are also other factors to consider. The researchers included in their introduction these factors are paramount as they may enhance or decrease satisfaction. When their satisfaction is high or low, it will carry over not just to intention to stay, but also quality of care and thus patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is crucial to the positive view and reputation of a hospital. It all comes together to either stimulate or lessen productivity and overall efficiency within the hospital or medical organization.

As they parlayed their efforts into research methods, they developed five hypotheses explained in section A. These methods declared that the transformational leadership style would translate to higher job satisfaction and higher intent to stay. They also stated the transaction leadership style would translate to lower job satisfaction and lower intent to stay. They began this by introducing the leadership styles in their literature review.

The leadership styles they focused on were transactional and transformational. They explained the classic and once believed successful, transactional leadership style is now not as effective as before. They associate the classic style to a bureaucratic and democratic leadership style. They associate contemporary leadership styles with transactional (that leaves nurses with little input and individual consideration) and transformational (that gives individual consideration and higher level of autonomy).

Research Problem

The research problem relates to leadership styles, job satisfaction, and intention to stay at work. All these the authors try to correlate together with either good/transformational or bad/transactional. It seems several studies and researchers believe transformational as the leadership style to adopt above all else. "Effective nurse leadership is positioned as an essential factor in achieving optimal patient outcomes and workplace enhancement. Over the last two decades, writing and research on nursing leadership has been dominated by one conceptual theory, that of transformational leadership" (Hutchinson & Jackson, 2012, p. 11). Although studies show transformational leadership styles work, they do not show a connection with retention rates and most of the sample sizes are too small. Even this one only consisted of 308 nurses.

In another study with a much larger sample size ("3186 bedside nurses of 272 randomly selected nursing units in 56 Belgian acute hospitals were surveyed" (Van den Heede et al., 2013, p. 185)), retention rates where not decided based solely upon leadership styles. They were based more on work environment and patient…