Work climate perception and turnover intention among Korean hospital staff.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the impact of work climate perception (WCP) on turnover intention among public hospital personnel in Korea.


BACKGROUND
With increased competition and high staff turnover in hospitals, managers focus on human resource management. Positive work climate is considered as a strategy to retain valued staff, but previous studies have shown occupationally different relationships between turnover intention and work environment characteristics as perceived by staff.


METHODS
A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted of employees (n = 852) in four public hospitals in Korea to gather information about WCP, intention to leave and demographics. The work climate was measured by 32 items categorized into 13 factors in five dimensions. For each occupation, logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the significant factors of WCP that influenced turnover intention.


RESULTS
Positive WCP inversely influenced turnover intention. For all occupations, the most significant factor was 'workgroup friendliness and warmth' (OR = 0.01-0.21). For the nursing group, an additional significant factor was 'adherence to job standard' (OR = 0.63). In contrast, there were different significant factors for other hospital staff: 'workgroup esprit de corps' (OR = 0.16) and 'role clarity' (OR = 0.19) for physicians, 'adherence to job standard' (OR = 3.08) and 'role adaptation' (OR = 2.23) for paramedicals, and 'flexibility and innovation' (OR = 0.14) and 'interdepartmental cooperation' (OR = 0.19) for administrators.


CONCLUSIONS
Nurses with perceptions of work climate emphasizing 'workgroup friendliness and warmth' and 'adherence to job standard' had lower turnover intention. Physicians, paramedicals and administrators have different WCPs. To retain qualified personnel, hospitals should focus on human relations, maintaining a consideration for occupation-specific characteristics.
Hwang
J-I
JI
Department of Nursing and Healthcare Management, College of Nursing Science, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
Chang
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006272:Health Facility Environment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007723:Korea; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010563:Personnel Turnover / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult