Psychological empowerment and job satisfaction between Baby Boomer and Generation X nurses

This paper is a report of a study of differences in nurses' generational psychological empowerment and job satisfaction.

Generations differ in work styles such as autonomy, work ethics, involvement, views on leadership, and primary views on what constitutes innovation, quality, and service.

A secondary analysis was conducted from two data sets resulting in a sample of 451 registered nurses employed at five hospitals in West Virginia. One data set was gathered from a convenience sample and one from a randomly selected sample. Data were collected from 2000 to 2004.

Baby Boomer nurses reported higher mean total psychological empowerment scores than Generation X nurses. There were no differences in total job satisfaction scores between the generations.

There were significant differences among the generations' psychological empowerment scores. Generational differences related to psychological empowerment could provide insight into inconsistent findings related to nurse job satisfaction.

Nurse administrators may consider this evidence when working on strategic plans to motivate and entice Generation X nurses and retain Baby Boomers. Although implications based on this study are tentative, the results indicate the need for administrators to consider the differences between Baby Boomer and Generation X nurses.