Personality Traits of Nurse Managers and Evaluation of Their Traits by Their Subordinates

AIM: To investigate personality traits (PT) of nurse managers (NM) and their subordinates’ perceptions of these traits. METHODS: The study sample consisted of NM and nurses from a university hospital and a state hospital. The data were collected in September–October 2015. The study was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, a cross-sectional descriptive study was performed, and a 220-item “Five-Factor Personality Inventory” was administered to 20 NM. The second stage with 60 nurses was conducted through semi-structured interviews and results were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis. Evaluation was carried out using a qualitative method in a phenomenological research design, and the hermeneutic approach was adopted. The research was planned based on the 32-item checklist (COREQ), which is a guideline for qualitative studies. RESULTS: The Five-Factor Personality Inventory revealed that most of the NM defined themselves as responsible/determined, orderly, relaxed, outgoing, reconciliatory, rule-follower, or assertive. In addition, the nurse manger’s mean score for the social desirability dimension of the inventory was quite high. The data analysis demonstrated that the clinical nurses mostly perceived the NM as soft-hearted, reconciliatory, and orderly, but rule-followers, and conservative. CONCLUSION: In this study, the high scores obtained by the NM, not only from the self-control/conscientiousness dimension but also from the social desirability dimension indicates that the clinical nurses perceived their managers as tender-minded, reconciliatory, orderly, and rule-followers.