Relationship between Head Nurses’ Locus of Control and Staff Nurses’ Job Empowerment

Background: Locus of control is an important variable describing individual differences and predicting behavior in organizational settings. Determining the scores of internal-external locus of control of the doctors, nurses and managers will help to have a better understanding of the manpower within hospitals. The Present Study Aimed: To investigate the relationship between head nurses’ locus of control and staff nurses’ job empowerment. A descriptive co-relational Study was conducted on 37 head nurses and 279 staff nurses and data were collected from Port-Said hospitals. Data were collected using two tools; Locus of Control Questionnaire and Empowerment Questionnaire. The Results: The present study revealed that about one third of head-nurses had internal locus of control. Moreover, most staff-nurses were empowered. Conclusion: Head-nurses who have external locus of control were statistically significant higher in empowering staff-nurses regarding availability of information. Whereas, the head-nurses who have internal locus of control were statistically significant higher in empowering staff-nurses regarding availability of resources. Recommendation: The work locus of control orientation or beliefs of head-nurses applicant should be taken into consideration. Preference should be given to those who have internal work locus of control orientation or beliefs. Head-nurses should be encouraged to cultivate internal work locus of control beliefs so that their organizational. This can be done through the provision of counseling services by the management of the hospitals.