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Human Resources for Health
Published in: Human Resources for Health 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research

The paradox of falling job satisfaction with rising job stickiness in the German nursing workforce between 1990 and 2013

Authors: Mohamad Alameddine, Jan Michael Bauer, Martin Richter, Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Published in: Human Resources for Health | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

Literature reports a direct relation between nurses’ job satisfaction and their job retention (stickiness). The proper planning and management of the nursing labor market necessitates the understanding of job satisfaction and retention trends. The objectives of the study are to identify trends in, and the interrelation between, the job satisfaction and job stickiness of German nurses in the 1990–2013 period using a flexible specification for job satisfaction that includes different time periods and to also identify the main determinants of nurse job stickiness in Germany and test whether these determinants have changed over the last two decades.

Methods

The development of job stickiness in Germany is depicted by a subset of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1990–2013), with each survey respondent assigned a unique identifier used to calculate the year-to-year transition probability of remaining in the current position. The changing association between job satisfaction and job stickiness is measured using job satisfaction data and multivariate regressions assessing whether certain job stickiness determinants have changed over the study period.

Results

Between 1990 and 2013, the job stickiness of German nurses increased from 83 to 91%, while their job satisfaction underwent a steady and gradual decline, dropping by 7.5%. We attribute this paradoxical result to the changing association between job satisfaction and job stickiness; that is, for a given level of job (dis)satisfaction, nurses show a higher stickiness rate in more recent years than in the past, which might be partially explained by the rise in part-time employment during this period. The main determinants of stickiness, whose importance has not changed in the past two decades, are wages, tenure, personal health, and household structure.

Conclusions

The paradoxical relation between job satisfaction and job stickiness in the German nursing context could be explained by historical downsizing trends in hospitals, an East-West German nurse compensation gap, and an increase in the proportion of nurses employed on a part-time basis. A clearer analysis of each of these trends is thus essential for the development of evidence-based policies that enhance the job satisfaction and efficiency of the German nursing workforce.
Appendix
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Footnotes
2
The healthcare sector includes other health related occupations such as doctors and therapists, based the classification of the German Census Office (StaBuA 1992 code 8400-8600). The total service sector sample excludes healthcare and nurses.
 
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Metadata
Title
The paradox of falling job satisfaction with rising job stickiness in the German nursing workforce between 1990 and 2013
Authors
Mohamad Alameddine
Jan Michael Bauer
Martin Richter
Alfonso Sousa-Poza
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Human Resources for Health / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1478-4491
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-017-0228-x

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