Nurses’ trust in managers and its relationship with nurses’ performance behaviors: a descriptive- correlational study

BACKGROUND: Organizational trust is one of the most important issues in human relations that its importance in organizations is well known. Effective communication and cooperation between individuals require trust. On the other hand, the quality of a nurse’s trust in his/ her manager affects the behavior and performance of the nurse. The purpose of this study was to determine nurses’trust in managers (head-nurses and supervisors) and its relationship with nurses’ performance behavior. METHODS: This descriptive-correlational study was performed with the participation of 431 nurses working in educational centers of Ardabil, Iran. The sampling method was stratified randomly. Questionnaires of the McAllister Trust and Paterson Job Performance were used. Data analysiswas performed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency) and Chi-square testin SPSS v.22. RESULTS: The results showed that the majority of nurses trusted head-nurses (80.3%) and supervisors (61.9%). In addition, most nurses’ functional behavior (92.1%) was reported as excellent. There was no significant relationship between nurse trust in head-nurse and nurses’functional behavior (P = 0.58), while it was significant between nurse-supervisor trust and nurses’ functional behavior (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed a relationship between nurse-supervisor trust and nurses’ functional behavior. Therefore, it is recommended ways to improve the trust between the treatment team, especially among nurses and supervisors are considered as one of the factors influencing the nurses’ behavioral performance.