Nurse identity salience: Antecedents and career consequences

Nurse identity salience: Antecedents and career consequences Dr Leisa D. Sargent Department of Management University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Email: lsargent@unimelb.edu.au Belinda C. Allen Department of Management University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Email: allenbc@unimelb.edu.au Associate Professor Bill Harley Department of Management University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Email: allenbc@unimelb.edu.au

Nurse identity salience: Antecedents and career consequences ABSTRACT In this paper we examine how interpersonal networks, efficacy beliefs and job characteristics influences aged care nurse identity salience. We also investigate the extent to which identity salience acts as a mediator between social structural and job characteristics on perceived career success. Using data from a random sample of members of the Victorian branch of the Australian Nurses Union (N=602), we find that the breadth and depth of work-related interpersonal networks, work-related efficacy beliefs and task significance are positively related to identity salience. Further, perceived career success is associated directly with depth of interpersonal networks, efficacy beliefs, skill variety, and identity salience. It also appears that breadth of interpersonal networks, task identity and significance are indirectly related to career success. Keywords: identity, job characteristics, networks, subjective career success 2

A pervasive construct in contemporary careers research is identity (e.g., DeFillippi and Arthur, 1996; Fugate, Kinicki, and Ashforth, 2004; Hall, 2002). Much of the careers literature to date has failed to explain what factors influence identity and in particular the concept of identity salience (e.g., Hall, 2002). Identity salience is defined in terms of the probability of invoking an identity across a variety of situations (Stryker and Serpe, 1982). Those identities that are conceptualised as being positioned at the top of an individual's salience hierarchy will take precedence over those lower on the hierarchy and will more strongly influence self-perceptions and actions (Callero, 1985). The central task of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of a nurse identity salience in the relationship between job characteristics, interpersonal networks and subjective career success. The paper makes three contributions to the literature on identity and careers. First, we draw on two role based theories - job characteristics (Hackman and Oldham, 1980) which is derived from organizational psychology, and role identity (Stryker, 1987) which as its roots in symbolic interactionism to predict identity salience. Second, we test Stryker s (1987) proposition that identity salience acts as a mediator between role identity antecedents and career success. This will be one of the few works to do so in an organizational context (see Sargent, 2001 for an exception). Third, we evaluate the extent to which job characteristics have a direct or indirect effect on career success via identity salience. This is an important contribution because to date few researchers have examined how contextual or job related factors influence identity processes. We draw on Stryker s (1987) role identity theory as a basis for understanding work based identity. Historically careers researchers have utilised identity salience (e.g., Hall, 2002; Lobel and St. Clair, 1992) empirically and theoretically but have failed to account for the antecedent conditions. According to Stryker s theory (1987) and those who have subsequently developed it (Stets and Burke, 2000) there are three factors that predict identity salience: Self-efficacy, interactional role commitment and affective role commitment. Stryker defines commitment in terms of the number of social relationships which an 3

individual reports and the importance of these relationships upon which each identity is predicated. Thus, commitment consists of two types: interactional commitment, which refers to the number of relationships that are associated with the role identity, and affective commitment, the perceived importance of the social relationships associated with a particular role identity (Pratt, 1998). Thus, a person is committed to a role identity to the degree that affective and interactional relationships are built upon that role. The evidence suggests there is support for Stryker s identity theory. There is clear support for the relationship between affective commitment and identity salience (e.g.,hoelter, 1983; Nuttbrock & Freudiger, 1991; Serpe, 1987; Stryker & Serpe, 1982). However, there appears to be less support for the relationship between interactional commitment and identity salience. Thus, the evidence suggests that it is not the extensiveness of an individual's relationships in a particular role, but the importance of the relationships that predict role identity salience. Finally, the findings from the literature suggest that role identity salience does, to some extent, govern role related behaviour and affective responses (e.g., Callero, 1985; Lee, Piliavin & Call, 1999; Sparks & Shepard, 1992; Stryker & Serpe, 1994). In addition to interpersonal networks being related to role identity salience, so too is self-efficacy. Stets and Burke (2000) argue that self-efficacy relates to feelings of competence and effectiveness and is related to role identity salience. Little research has been conducted to date on this hypothesised relationship, thus our work seeks to fill this gap in the literature. Stryker (1980) places great emphasis on the interpersonal networks tied to a particular role. In this paper we want to expand this understanding of identity salience by suggesting that salience is also predicated on the experienced meaningfulness of one s job role. To further develop this line of thinking we draw on job characteristics theory (Hackman and Oldham, 1980), and in particular skill variety, task identity and task significance as additional predictors of identity salience. Consistent with Hackman and Oldham (1980) we propose that these three job characteristics capture how meaningful one s job is and propose that each 4

characteristic will uniquely contribute to predicting identity salience (see figure 1). No other research to date has assessed the extent to which specific job characteristics are related to identity salience. A meta-analysis on job characteristics theory demonstrates that skill variety; task significance and task identity are all positively related to work attitudes, more so than to work behaviours such as performance or absenteeism (Fried & Ferris, 1987). These findings indicate that skill and task characteristics will be positively related to subjective career success; however we want to test the contention that identity salience acts as a mediator in predicting role-related outcomes such as subjective career success. By examining perceptions of career success we are able to fully test Stryker s model (1980). Figure 1. Conceptual model Skill variety Task identity Task significance Interactional commitment Affective commitment Self-efficacy Work identity salience Subjective Career success METHOD A cross sectional questionnaire study of 602 aged care nurses (40 % response rate) in Victoria, Australia was completed. They were randomly sampled from the Australian Nurses Union aged care member data base. The nurses were employed across the State in different aged care facilities. The participants mean tenure in their current organization was 8.34 years; they had an average of 16.7 years experience in aged care. Ninety-six per cent of the participants were women, 67 per cent were married and they had a mean age of 47.4 years. Nearly half the participants reported working for public sector aged care home facilities (48 %). Respondents reported working a mean of 27.4 hours a week, with almost 74 per cent of the 5

sample reporting part-time job status. Analyses were conducted to assess the representativeness of our sample with the national nursing labour force statistics. On the three demographics that we were able to compare, mean age, gender composition and mean work hours per week, the sample characteristics are not statistically different from the population (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2003). Measures Interactional role commitment was measured by a 4-item scale from work by Stryker and Serpe (1982). Participants were asked to which extent they were engaged in relationships associated with their work role and to assess how many relationship ties they were involved in. Respondents were asked to provide a numerical count ( =.72). A 5-item scale from work by Stryker and Serpe (1994) assessed affective role commitment. The measure examines the extent to which participants perceived their social relationships to be important to their current job role (e.g. My work contacts are helpful ) on a five-point response scale ( =.80). Perceptions of job related self-efficacy were measured using an 8-item scale developed by Chen, Gully, and Eden (2001). The scale consists of statements such as When facing difficult tasks at work, I am certain that I will accomplish them. Participants recorded their responses on a five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree ( =.85). The job characteristics of task identity, task significance and skill variety were assessed using the revised job characteristics survey by Idaszak and Drasgow (1987). This revised version of the job characteristics survey has been designed to eliminate the measurement artefact contained in the original survey developed by Hackman and Oldham (1980). Each of the job characteristics was assessed via three items, with participants being asked to indicate on a seven-point scale how accurate or inaccurate each item was in describing their job ( =.78; =.77; =.81 respectively). 6

Nurse identity salience was assessed with a three-item measure derived from work by Thoits (1991). The questionnaire asked participants to assess the extent to which they feel their work role was important to them relative to other roles in their life ( =.91). A five-item scale developed by Greenhaus, Parasuraman and Wormley (1990) was used to measure subjective career success. The scale consists of statements such as I am satisfied with the success I have achieved in my career. A seven-point response scale was used from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree. The coefficient alpha for the scale is.89. RESULTS In the regression analyses we controlled for age, mean work hours per week, education level, whether the nursing home was part of a chain or a stand alone facility, whether it was privately owned, as well as whether the nurses were employed casually. Table 1 provides a summary of the two hierarchical regressions. Antecedents of Nurse Identity Salience In the final step of the regression analysis, nurse s age was positively related to work identity salience ( =.14, p <.001). Interactional role commitment and affective role commitment were significant positive predictors of nurse identity salience ( =.13, p <.001) and ( =.20, p <.001) respectively. Job related self-efficacy was also a positive predictor ( =.11, p <.001). Task significance was positively related to salience ( =.17, p <.01), but skill variety was not significant. It is noteworthy that task identity was significant in step 2 of the regression equation but became non-significant when self-efficacy was added to the equation in step 3. The full model accounted for 25 per cent of the variance in nurse identity salience F (12, 590) = 7.36, p <.001). 7

TABLE 1 Hierarchical Regression Analyses Predicting Levels of Identity salience and Career Successs from Measures of Job Characteristics and Role Commitment Nurse identity salience Career success Predictors Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Age.15***.14**.14***.09*.05.05.04 Work hours per week.08*.05.04.09*.05.03.03 Qualification -.02 -.02 -.02.05.04.04.04 Privately owned facility.12**.11**.10* -.02 -.01 -.03 -.04 Sole facility ownership.03.03.02.10*.09*.09*.09* Casual employee.00.05.05.00.04.04.03 Affective commitment.22***.20***.24***.21***.18*** Interactional commitment.14***.13***.08*.05.03 Task identity.10**.07.10*.03.02 Task significance.18**.17***.05.04.01 Skill variety.03.03.16**.15**.15** Self-efficacy.11**.21***.19*** Nurse identity salience.14** R 2 change.05***.19***.01**.03**.16***.03***.02*** R 2 cumulative.05.24.25.03.19.23.24 F change 4.88 29.16 7.36 2.81 23.95 26.02 11.75 df 6,596 11,591 12,590 6,596 11,591 12,590 13,589 Note. All entries are standardised regression coefficients. * p <.05; ** p <.01; *** p <.001 Identity and Job Characteristics Predictors of Subjective Career Success In the final step of the regression analysis working in a stand alone facility was positively related to subjective career success ( =.09, p <.05). Testing for a mediational model using Baron and Kenny s (1986) recommendations, we completed three regression equations. The findings suggest that affective role commitment, job related self-efficacy and skill variety all had positive direct effects on career success ( =.15, p <.001), ( =.19, p <.001), and ( =.15, p <.001) respectively. However, interactional 8

commitment and task identity were significant in step two of the regression equation but were no longer significant once job related self efficacy and nurse identity salience was entered into the equation. We investigated this further and the analysis suggests that nurse identity salience ( =.14, p <.001) acts as a mediator between these factors and career success (this was assessed using the sobel test in addition to examining the regression equations). The full model accounted for 24 per cent of the variance in subjective career success (F (15, 557) = 12.82, p <.001). DISCUSSION This paper demonstrates that job characteristics (in particular task significance and task identity) along with job related self-efficacy and affective and interactional commitment are positively associated with a nurses identity salience. This suggests that the significance of one s job is related to identity salience in addition to interpersonal networks. The findings suggest only partial support for Stryker s (1987) proposition that nurses identity salience acts as a mediator, as affective commitment, self-efficacy and skill variety each had a main effect on perceptions of career success. However, identity salience did mediate interactional commitment as well as task identity. This study has sought to better understand the relational as well as the task characteristics that contribute to work identity salience and how this influences subjective career success. Thus, we have attempted to unpack identity by incorporating a sociological theory based on symbolic interactionism -Stryker s model with a job design theory - Hackman and Oldham s job characteristics theory. These findings have several implications for careers researchers. First they indicate that it is not only interpersonal networks that predict identity salience but it is also nature of the activities or tasks related to the work role that play a part. It is also noteworthy that this is probably one of the first large scale studies to test the relationship between job related self-efficacy and identity salience in a work context. To this end it answers the calls for work in this arena (Stets & Burke, 2000). Second, the research answers calls 9

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