title: Shared governance: what it means to those involved.
abstract: Nurses saw shared governance as both a management philosophy and an organizational structure that changes the organizational culture and belief system. Because of these two aspects of shared governance, its implementation is an evolutionary process in which former roles are examined and new roles are learned. Power shifts during the implementation of shared governance create role conflicts and confusion in the decision domains of staff and managerial nurses. Shared governance is highly valued by participants as a mechanism to enhance commitment to the organization, accountability for nursing practice, and the professionalism of both the clinical and managerial staff. The participants valued the opportunities for growth and development of leadership skills that shared governance provided. While negative perspective were shared, they seemed to be secondary to the overall satisfaction with shared governance. Some of the negative perspectives seemed to relate to the length of experience with shared governance, whereas others seemed to be essential elements of the experience.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Stichler
mesh_terms: D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D009745:Nursing, Supervisory; D011209:Power, Psychological