Workplace Stress/Role Strain, Empowerment and Faculty-to-Faculty Incivility among Nursing Educators: A Mediation Analysis

Abstract:

Researchers are aware of the association of workplace stress and academic incivility (Clark, 2008). An identified limitation of previous research is if there are organizational mediators of workplace stress and how these have an impact on incivility among nursing faculty. One of these potential mediators is empowerment. The question is whether or not structural and psychological empowerment mediates stress, an essential aspect of Clark’s incivility model, and in doing so has an effect to potentially decrease faculty-to-faculty incivility in the academic nursing environment. It is this broader impact of culture of the faculty, the perceptions of workplace stress and the mediating potential of both structural and psychological empowerment (Laschinger, 2009), that is unknown.

This paper therefore addresses the following key question: To what extent does structural and psychological empowerment mediate the relationship between workplace stress/role strain and faculty-to-faculty incivility? 93 educators in Southwestern Ontario, Canada completed an online survey. Participants completed four study tools including the Faculty to Faculty Incivility Survey (F-FI survey) (Clark & Springer, 2010), the Role Strain Scale (Mobily, 1991), The Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-II (CWEQ-II) (Laschinger et al., 2001) in relation to structural empowerment, and The Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire (Spreitzer, 1995). The results provided evidence sought to further advance the conceptual relationships as presented by the supporting theories, the ‘Conceptual Model for Fostering Civility in Nursing Education’ (Clark, 2008) and the ‘Expanded Model of Empowerment’ (Laschinger et al., 2001). As a result of the lack of significance between the predictor variables of workplace stress/role strain and structural and psychological empowerment and the outcome measure of faculty-to-faculty incivility, the steps of mediation analysis were violated and therefore no further testing for mediation was warranted. Whether or not empowerment may be a moderator or confounder requires additional research. Further findings and the sharing of experience related to the perceptions of workplace stress/role strain, structural and psychological empowerment and faculty-to-faculty incivility in nursing education provided a wealth of information supporting previous research done in this field. The implications for leadership and the need for strong policy development to address the issue of faculty-to-faculty incivility in nursing education were strongly voiced by the participants. This study and presentation invites a discussion about what the future holds for nursing educators and nursing education leaders relative to workplace stress/role strain and its effects on faculty-to-faculty civility.