Abstract:
This descriptive research was conducted to evaluate the levels and analyze the
relationship between, personal characteristics of professional nurses, exemplary
leadership of in-patient department heads and organization climate of in-patient
department, and organizational effectiveness of in-patient department. The sample group
consisted of 301 professional nurses with more than 2 years of working experience from
4 public university hospitals in the central region of Thailand. The data were collected by
questionnaire between 14 August 2007 and 12 September 2007. The collected data were
analyzed by Chi-square, Pearsons Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Stepwise
Multiple Regression Analysis.
The results showed that exemplary leadership of in-patient department heads,
organization climate of in-patient department and organizational effectiveness of inpatient
department in public university hospitals, overall, were strong (mean = 3.67, 3.65
and3.57 respectively).However, the personal characteristic of professional nurses was not
related to the organizational effectiveness of in-patient departments. But, exemplary
leadership of in-patient department heads and organization climate of in-patient
departments were positively and significantly, at a moderate level, related to the
organizational effectiveness of in-patient departments at a statistical test level (p<0.001).
From this study, it is suggested that in-patient department heads should boost their
potential by taking additional management training courses in order to develop
themselves and their exemplary leadership continuously. Hospital executives should set
up a policy encouraging the staff morale, working satisfaction, and improving
communication.