A FIELD STUDY ON COMMUNICATION SATISFACTION IN HEALTH INSTITUTIONS

Öz

Borders between countries fade away as a result of globalization, and organizations have to develop new management techniques in order to be able to cope with tough competitive conditions. These management techniques target employees and utilize the power of communication in implementation (Telman & Unsal, 2005: 19). Communication, which falls within the responsibility of the manager in the most general sense (Mintzberg, 1989: 18), plays an important role in organizational life considering the reciprocal relationships within an organization (Gürgen, 1997: 25-28). In this sense, the concept of communication as an element of managing coordination (Fielding, 2006: 9-10) and the concept of communication satisfaction developed as its measure come to bear a lot of importance. Knowing the factors that influence the level of communication satisfaction within the organization will help to improve communication processes. The concept of communication satisfaction was defined as “all states of communication taking place in an organization and an employee’s personal satisfaction with them” by Battey (2010: 13), while Redding (1978: 429) defined it as an employee’s general level of perceived satisfaction with the whole communication environment in an organization. Downs and Hazen (1977) conducted detailed studies on organizational communication satisfaction. Downs and Hazen (1977) studied the multi-dimensionality of communication satisfaction by developing an original scale called the “Communication Satisfaction Scale”. They defined the following eight dimension for organizational communication satisfaction: communication climate, communication with superiors, organizational integration, media quality, horizontal and informal communication, organizational perspective, relationship with subordinates, and personal feedback. The total of these dimensions suggests the general level of satisfaction with organizational communication. While there are many studies on the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance in the literature, there are only few that examine the relationship between communication satisfaction and demographic variables in the health industry. As our literature review suggests, no studies examining the communication satisfaction of the personnel in the health industry in Turkey were found. This study aims to examine the relationship between communication satisfaction and demographical variables among nurses. It involves a field study conducted with the participation of 67 nurses working in various health institutions in Kahramanmaras. Descriptive statistics, T-test, and ANOVA were used to analyze the data obtained through questionnaire forms. Of 67 participants, 70% were female and 30% were male; and 52% were married. 85% of the participants were aged below 40. Accordingly, the majority of the participants (79%) had a term of employment below 10 years. 70% had worked in another institution before. The educational backgrounds of the participants were distributed almost evenly between university degree and vocational school degree. A descriptive statistical analysis of the responses of all participating nurses suggested that the nurses had a “moderate” level of communication satisfaction. The relationship between communication satisfaction and such variables as gender, age, marital status, and status concerning previous working experience in another institution were tested; and no significant difference was identified. This result agrees with the findings of the studies conducted by Nicholson (1980), Clampitt & Girard (1993) and Varona (1988). However, it was found that a nurse’s satisfaction with horizontal communication, communication with superiors, organizational integration, and personal feedback depended on whether the institution the nurse was working at was located in the city where he or she was from. In other words, if the hospital was located in the same city as where the nurse is from, the satisfaction was higher in the mentioned areas. Liang and Back (2011) also emphasized that managers should know about the characteristics of their employees to be able to increase organizational loyalty, since the job satisfaction of employees depend on their satisfaction with communication with superiors and horizontal communication (Blegen, 1993). Level of education was found to affect satisfaction with organizational integration and personal feedback. Similarly, in a study conducted by Kounenou et al. with the participation of 237 nurses, it was found that educational background and ongoing education affected the communication behavior of nurses. Contrary to Kavanaugh’s (2006) finding that level of education and communication satisfaction are positively related, our study suggests that the satisfaction with organizational integration and personal feedback go down as level of education increases. This finding might have to do with the fact that higher level of education also brings higher expectations. Communication climate and personal feedback were found to depend on the nurses’s term of employment, and our study agrees with the study conducted by Eroglu and Gulden with regard to personal feedback and with the study conducted by Fu and Mount (2002) with regard to organizational integration, communication climate, and personal feedback. Satisfaction with communication with superiors and organizational integration were found to vary depending on term of employment. Nurses who had a term of employment less than a year had higher satisfaction in communication with superiors and organizational integration than those who had been working for 1-5 years and for 5-10 years respectively. Similarly, nurses employed for less than a year also had higher satisfaction level with communication climate and personal feedback than those who had been working for 1-5 years and 5-10 years. Ernst et al. (2004) suggest that nurses might be feeling more secure as they gain experience in the profession. The reason why our findings indicate the opposite might have to do with the fact that many expectations go unfulfilled over the years, and that the health system has been under a constant change due to reforms. This study identified a statistically meaningful difference between 1) level of education and satisfaction with personal feedback, 2) term of employment and satisfaction with communication climate and with personal feedback, 3) term of employment and satisfaction with communication with superiors and with organizational integration, and 4) the status concerning whether the hospital is located in nurse’s hometown and satisfaction with horizontal communication, communication with superiors, organizational integration, and personal feedback. In conclusion, it is important for the health institutions to employ qualified managers when management is restructured in light of the changes in the health care system, and human resources units should consider the factors affecting communication satisfaction while employing new nurses. Increasing communication satisfaction among the personnel working in health-related institutions will have a significant impact on increasing the functionality and quality of health care services in the long run.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Communication, Communication Satisfaction, Service Quality, Health Industry, Communication In Health Industry

SAĞLIK KURUMLARINDA İLETİŞİM DOYUMU ÜZERİNE BİR ALAN ARAŞTIRMASI

Öz

Bu çalışmanın amacı örgütlerde çalışanların demografik özellikleri ile iletişim doyumu boyutlarından iletişim iklimi, üstlerle iletişim, kurumsal bütünleşme, yatay iletişim ve bireysel geribildirim arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektir. Çalışmada Kahramanmaraş’ta faaliyet gösteren sağlık kurumlarında çalışan 67 hemşireyle yapılan bir alan araştırmasına yer verilmiştir. Araştırmada anket yöntemi ile elde edilen verilerin analizlerinde tanımlayıcı istatistikler, t-testi ve anova testi kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda, (1) hemşirelerin eğitim düzeyleri ile kurumsal bütünleşme ve bireysel geribildirim doyumu arasında (2) hemşirelerin meslekte çalışma süreleri ile iletişim iklimi ve bireysel geribildirim doyumu arasında (3) hemşirelerin kurumda çalışma süreleri ile üstlerle iletişim ve kurumsal bütünleşme doyumu arasında (4) çalışılan hastanenin hemşirenin memleketi olup olmaması ile yatay iletişim, üstlerle iletişim, kurumsal bütünleşme ve bireysel geribildirim doyumu arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark bulunmuştur. Sağlık kurumlarındaki sistem değişiklikleriyle birlikte yönetim yapılanmasında da meydana gelen değişimlerde nitelikli yöneticilerin istihdam edilmesi konusunda gereken hassasiyetin gösterilmesi, insan kaynakları biriminin hemşire alımında iletişim doyumu etkileyen faktörleri göz önünde bulundurması önem taşımaktadır. Uzun vadede sağlık kurumlarında çalışanların iletişim doyumlarının arttırılması, sağlık hizmetlerinin işlevselliğinin ve hizmet kalitesinin arttırılmasında önemli rol oynayacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• İletişim, iletişim doyumu, hizmet kalitesi, sağlık sektörü, sağlıkta iletişim