The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among nurses''
workplace bullying, organizational culture and organizational commitment. Participants
were 299 nurses who have worked more than 6 months from 5 general hospitals in
Jeju. Data were collected from August 28th to September 30th, 2014 using a selfreported
questionnaire which contained workplace bullying, organizational culture, and
organizational commitment. The data were analysed by Cronbach''s alpha, descriptive
statistics, t-test, ANOVA, χ2 test and Spearman correlation coefficient using the
SPSS version 20.0.
The results of this study were as follows;
1. Of the participants, 17.7% reported experiences of workplace bullying.
2. The mean score of perceived organizational culture was highest in the rank
-related culture of 3.32 (SD=0.50) followed by relation-oriented culture of
3.15 (SD=0.70), innovation-oriented culture of 2.82 (SD=0.62) and task
-related culture of 2.74 (SD=0.52). The mean score of organizational
commitment was 2.92 (SD=0.39).
3. There was a significant difference in workplace bullying according to age
(F=8.36, p=.015). Nurses who were under 30 years old reported they experienced workplace bullying more than those who were 40 or older.
There were significant differences in perceived relation-oriented culture
according to working units (F=3.63, p=.002) and hospital size (F=3.43,
p=.034). Nurses who were working in the outpatients department or in
hospitals of which beds were under 200 reported high level of relation
-oriented culture.
The results presented significant differences in perceived innovation-oriented
culture according to working units (F=2.89, p=.010), hospital size (F=3.73,
p=.025), or presence of a preceptorship or mentorship program (t=2.77,
p=.006). Nurses who were working in hospitals of which beds were 300 or
more or had a preceptorship or mentorship program in their working unit
showed high score of innovation-oriented culture.
There were significant differences in their perceptions of rank-oriented culture
according to working units (F=2.26, p=.038) and employment status (t=2.08,
p=.038). The permanent nurses perceived higher in the level of rank-oriented
culture than temporary nurses.
We found significant differences in task-oriented culture according to age
(F=9.02, p<.001), marital status (t=4.21, p<.001), education level (t=-2.69,
p=.008), work experience (F=12.62, p<.001), working experience in the
present department (F=3.85, p=.022), working unit (F=2.70, p=.014), shift
work (t=-3.30, p=.001), employment status (t=1.95, p=.052), position
(F=4.46, p=.012), and hospital size (F=3.54, p=.030). Those who were 40 or
older, married, had a bachelor''s degree or higher, had a career of ten years or
longer, were non-shift workers, or had a position of head nurse or higher
turned out to have a high perception level of task-oriented culture.
Significant differences were found in the organizational commitment of the
participants according to age (F=6.35, p=.002), marital status (t=2.69,
p=.008), education level (t=-2.47, p=.014), position (F=9.57, p<.001),
presence of a preceptor or mentor (t=2.83, p=.029), and nursing care deliverymethods (F=3.60, p=.029). Nurses who were 40 or older, were married, had a
bachelor''s degree or higher, had a position of chief nurse or higher or were
working in a unit which have a preceptorship or mentorship program, or
provided team nursing turned out to have a high perception level of
organizational commitment.
4. The more the participants experienced workplace bullying, the higher they
were aware of rank-related culture (r=.15, p<.05). However they showed
lower scores on relation-related culture (r=-.14, p<.05), innovation-related
culture (r=-.13, p<.05), and organizational commitment (r=-.17, p<.05).
Organizational commitment was significantly related to relation-related culture
(r=.39, p<.05), innovation-related culture (r=.48, p<.05), and task-related
culture (r=.34, p<.05).
In conclusion, workplace bullying had significant correlation with the rank-related
culture, the innovation-oriented culture, the relation-oriented culture, and
organizational commitment. However, this result cannot be generalized to the
relationship among nurses'' workplace bullying, organizational culture, and
organizational commitment in all the hospitals, because our research had been
performed with regional limitation.
There will be needed for comparative and repeated studies with nurses in different
areas to clearly demonstrate relations among workplace bullying, organizational
culture, and organizational commitment for desirable organizational culture and
organizational commitment among nurses.