Experienced meaningful work and the relation to team design according to nurses. A qualitative study of how team design could support or obstruct the meaningfulness of work of postoperative care nurses at the Radboud UMC.

Keywords
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Issue Date
2019-07-15
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
A lot of attention has been paid to the relation between meaningful work and job design in current literature (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). For nurses, working in a team is important for their work (Pavlish & Hunt, 2012; Sherman, 2006), and therefore the relationship between meaningful work and team design is relevant for research. For that reason, the aim of this research was to explain the influence team design on the experience of meaningful work among postoperative care nurses at the Radboud University Medical Centre. The corresponding research question is: To what extent does team design support or obstruct the experience of meaningful work for postoperative care nurses at Radboud UMC? The research method is qualitative with an inductive approach as starting point. The research is explanatory, because it aimed to explain what the relationship between meaningful work and team design could be. Within this single case study, eleven in-depth interviews were conducted with postoperative care nurses at the Radboud UMC. The analysis of the interviews is a combination of a deductive and inductive approach. The results show that meaningful work is experienced through variety in work, making a difference to the patient, and responsibility. Altogether, challenging tasks are important for meaningful work. Nurses need appreciation in their work and need to become aware of personal strengths and weaknesses in order to understand their contribution towards others. It depends on the nurses within the team what makes team design supporting or obstructing meaningful work, because meaningful work is a subjective experience. It can be concluded that both a social aspect as a work-related aspect are important for meaningful work. Social aspects that can be provided by team design are consultation, learning and knowledge sharing and a team feeling. Work-related aspects are variety, responsibility, and complexity.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen