The Relationship between Managers' Leadership Style and Employees' Job Satisfaction in Mental Health Inpatient Facilitie

This study examined the relationship between employees' perception of managers' transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership styles and employees' job satisfaction. Employees rated their immediate supervisor using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X and their own job satisfaction using the Abridged Job Descriptive Index and Abridged Job in General. One hundred twenty-six employees from both a private and public mental health inpatient facility in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas participated in the study. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictors for job satisfaction. Results from the study indicated that of the demographic variables considered; only education was a predictor for job satisfaction. A t-test was used to compare the means in job satisfaction and results indicated individuals with college education were more satisfied with their jobs than non-degreed individuals. These results were similar to results from existing research relevant to the study. Transformational leadership was a predictor for job satisfaction and had significant positive relationships with all six dimensions of job satisfaction: work on present job, pay, opportunities for promotion, supervision, co-workers, and job in general. In addition, passive avoidant leadership had a negative relationship with three of the job satisfaction dimensions: supervision, co-workers, and job in general. These findings are also in line with existing research. A significant and surprising finding of this study was that there was no difference between a public and private inpatient facility with regard to job satisfaction.