Introduction
Expertise in the nursing profession and a breakdown of stereotypes around nursing has led to increasing numbers of men choosing to become a nurse. The first male nurse in Korea began his career in 1962, and in 2020, the number of male nurses was 21,042 which accounted for 4.8% of the total number of nurses in Korea (436,565) [
1]. Male nurses in hospitals have typically been allocated to particular departments including the emergency rooms, intensive care units, and operating rooms in consideration of the work intensity, and without regard for their personal characteristics. With the increase in number of male nurses, more male nurses are being allocated to general wards, and their scope of activities in the clinical setting has become wider. This has brought about difficulties for male nurses because amongst other factors, the occupation of nursing is still regarded as a woman’s job and the recognition of male nurses in the culture of the hospital is still low [
2]. In clinical setting, they are regarded as “male” nurses rather than “nurses” [
3].
Male nurses are typically assigned surgical assistant or physician assistant positions, rather than carrying out general tasks associated with working on a general ward. Consequently, their work authorization and limitation of liability are not clear and thus role conflicts are caused. This impacts negatively on their job satisfaction and organizational commitment [
4]. As a result, many male nurses, although being satisfied with their occupation as a nurse, conclude that the organization is different from what they thought it was going to be [
5]. Male nurses despite accumulating a considerable amount of clinical job experience, tend to move to a different organization. So, rather than working for a hospital, they work for the fire brigade, the health service, or a medical device company [
6].
Organizational commitment, is a concept which reflects the psychological state of an individual towards an organization, and is the identification of oneself within the organization to which he or she belongs, or an expression of allegiance to it by internalizing the values of the organization [
7]. In addition, it is the emotional affection towards the organization itself while fulfilling one’s role to their best ability to achieve the goals and values of the organization [
8].
In the present study (with the purpose of increasing organizational commitment of male nurses), the relevant factors were studied, and the effects of gender stereotype, gender role conflict, and job satisfaction were measured. This will provide fundamental data which may help in the diversification of the typical roles male nurses perform in hospitals so that the organization will value male nurses as a human resource.
Results
The general characteristics of participants are shown in
Table 1. The mean age of the participants was 28.43 (± 4.82) years. There were 138 participants (83.1%) who were not married and 126 (75.9%) who had graduated from university. Among the participants, 155 (93.4%) had served in the military. There were 112 (67.5%) participants who were employed in general hospitals. There were 73 (44.0%) participants who worked at the hospitals located in metropolitan cities. The mean amount of time participants had invested in their nursing career so far was 42.70 (± 50.55) months. The mean amount of time spent working in the present hospital was 38.35 (± 42.75) months. There were 45 (27.1%) participants who were ICU nurses. The amount of time working in the present department was 31.60 (± 33.06) months. There were 152 (91.6%) participants who were in the nursing department. There were 112 (67.5%) participants who were nursing staff. As for the type of duty, 96 (57.8%) participants had fixed work, and 70 (42.2%) participants had 3-shift work. There were 129 (77.7%) participants who earned an annual average income of less than 46 million won (based on individual tax rates).
The participants’ gender stereotype, gender role conflict, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment are shown by
Table 2. Organizational commitment had statistically significant differences with age (
t = −4.69,
p < 0.001), marital status (
t = −2.95,
p = 0.004), total nursing career (F = 4.91,
p = 0.003), and total career in the present hospital (F = 4.98,
p = 0.002), total career in the present department (F = 5.47,
p < 0.001), affiliation in the hospital (
t = 2.28,
p = 0.024), average annual income (
t = −2.55,
p = 0.012) (
Table 1). Organizational commitment has positively correlated with gender role conflict (r = 0.28,
p < 0.001) and job satisfaction (r = 0.21,
p = 0.008).
As a result of multiple regression analysis shown in
Table 3, gender role conflict (
p < 0.001), job satisfaction (
p < 0.001), and age > 30 years (
p = 0.018) were influencing factors on organizational commitment. The explanatory power of these variables to explain the dependent variable was 23%, and had an effect in the order of gender role conflict (β = 0.304), job satisfaction (β = 0.303), and age > 30 years (β = 0.230). As a result of performing the normality test of the residuals to check the goodness-of-fit of the regression model, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z value was 0.665 (
p = 0.769). As a result of performing the test for equal variance of the residuals, Breusch-Pagan value was 9.690 (
p = 0.138). Thus, the regression model was statistically appropriate.
Discussion
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of gender stereotype, gender role conflict, and job satisfaction of male nurses on organizational commitment with the intension to provide fundamental data to improve organizational commitment. This may be in the form of improving the working environment in hospitals or developing an intervention program.
The average score for gender stereotypes was 2.30 ± 0.50 points out of 5. This result was consistent with previous studies where gender stereotypes were higher in male nurses compared with female nurses [
15,
16]. The high score for male nurses regarding gender stereotype may reflect the conservative idea which is prevalent in Korean society, that men should have the patriarchal roles and take the lead in work [
17]. Consequently, male nurses tend to consider nursing an inappropriate career and recognize the negativity around male nurses [
18]. Therefore, to reduce the prevalence of gender stereotypes experienced by male nurses working in a clinical setting, there needs to be gender equality education.
The average gender role conflict score was 3.03 ± 0.61 points out of 6. This score was similar to a previous study conducted with male nurses [
19] but lower than the score reported in a study of the development of the male role conflict scale conducted by Lee et al [
11]. The result of the current study is consistent with a previous report [
20] that the gender role conflict score of men working in a women-centered organization, such as nursing or education, is lower than men working in a typical men-centered organization. This result may be understood in the context that male nurses selected their career choice after careful consideration [
21].
The average job satisfaction score was 3.31 ± 0.44 points out of 5. The score was lower than the score in previous studies conducted with male nurses [
2,
22,
23] and a previous study conducted with female nurses [
24]. Due to the characteristics of the work, male nurses should continuously communicate and work with female nurses. This may present difficulties because societal pressure may cause male nurses to feel unsatisfied with their professional status in society [
18].
The average organizational commitment score was 2.92 ± 0.55 points out of 5. The score was similar to the score in a previous study conducted with new employees in large companies [
25] and lower than the score in a previous study conducted with female nurses [
24]. In typical organizations, men’s organization commitment is generally high, because the job and organizational structure are advantageous for males, and men usually have more opportunities for mutual exchange among the employers and employees. In the present study however, organizational commitment of the male nurses was lower than that of the female nurses, probably because organizational commitment was affected by the women-centered organization. Considering the demographical characteristics of the participants, organizational commitment was higher among those who were older and married, which is consistent with a relevant previous report [
18]. Organizational commitment was significantly different depending on the total amount of time invested in their nursing career, the total career period in the present hospital, the total length of time of their careers in the present department, the affiliation to the hospital, and the annual average income. This finding was consistent with a previous report that organizational commitment was higher among those who have had a longer career and who are paid more [
18,
26].
In this current study, the correlations among gender stereotype, gender role conflict, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were investigated, and organizational commitment showed a significantly positive correlation with gender role conflict, and with job satisfaction. This finding was consistent with the previous studies conducted with nurses where a positive correlation was observed between organizational commitment and job satisfaction [
27,
28], but different from a previous study that reported a negative correlation [
18]. This result was consistent with the previous studies where a positive correlation was determined between organizational commitment and the gender role conflict [
26,
29]
The regression model identified gender role conflict, job satisfaction, and age as the factors which influenced organizational commitment. Organizational commitment was higher among the nurses aged > 30 years, a higher gender role conflict score and a job satisfaction score. This may suggest that when male nurses become satisfied with their job and progress in their profession, they become committed to the organization despite nursing being classified as a woman’s job in Korean society. Satisfaction with the job inspires voluntary participation and creativity, creating a positive effect upon collaborative work to accomplish the goals of the organization [
28]. In addition, with increasing age the chances for promotion are elevated and a career has longevity which enables people to have a strong positive outlook upon the goals and values of the organization. Likewise, organizational commitment of the male nurses increased with age and with increased responsibilities in their roles as experienced nurses in the hospitals or nursing organizations.
As described above, the factors which influence organizational commitment in male nurses should be taken into consideration when preparing suitable policies for enhancing organizational commitment. Although increased expertise of nursing may encourage men into the profession, male nurses still undergo difficulties due to the prejudice and social stereotypes around nursing being a woman’s job. Therefore, a social understanding of the nursing profession should be challenged to create change, and consideration should be given to male nurses in the allocation of jobs in various departments of nursing in order to increase organizational commitment in male nurses. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop and implement organizational commitment educational interventions or programs that can positively promote gender role conflict, and job satisfaction, considering for the general characteristics of male nurses.
The present study has limitations as the results may not be generalized to the whole country because samples were taken by convenient sampling of 8 regional hospitals and the sample size was small. Therefore, further studies may need to be conducted by increasing the number of participants nationwide. In addition, studies may need to be conducted on nursing occupational groups where there are relatively more male nurses.