Managerial Intelligence of Nurse Managers in Sari Hospitals in Iran

Nurses constitute the largest group of healthcare staff in hospitals. Nursing is a stressful job owing to dealing with critically ill patients, high workload, low salaries, and low appreciation. In addition, patients expect high-quality and safe nursing care; therefore, the management of nursing wards is very important. Nurse managers are responsible for planning, managing resources, organizing nursing care, leading nurses, and evaluating their performance and play a key role in achieving optimal outcomes for patients and the hospital. Furthermore, nurse managers play a vital role in providing effective, efficient and safe care to patients. They should be equipped with intelligence, knowledge and skills in today’s complex, volatile, and unpredictable healthcare environment. The success of nurse managers largely depends on their aptitude and personality. Aptitude encompasses intelligence, knowledge, and skills, and personality refers to the managerchr('39')s beliefs, values, attitude, and behaviors. In addition to the knowledge, skills, and expertise of nurse managers, their intelligence also plays a pivotal role in improving their knowledge, capability, and behavior to optimally perform managerial tasks. The performance of managers depends on their intelligence, knowledge, skills, personality, and organizational structure, culture, and resources. Managerial intelligence refers to the capacity, ability, knowledge, skills, and experience of managers to analyze and define organizational problems, develop effective communication, create networks, and increase the power for better adaptation to changing environments or create the proper environment to achieve organizational goals. Managerial intelligence also encompasses cognitive, emotional, and political intelligence. Intelligence quotient (IQ) is a manager’s capacity and ability to evaluate and solve organizational problems, which enable them to think, understand, and analyze problems. On the other hand, emotional quotient (EQ) is the capacity of managers to recognize their own emotions and those of others and use the information to regulate their emotions. Political quotient (PQ) refers to a manager’s decision-making capacity, which enables them to pursue and achieve their interests in the competitive positions of leadership and power. The present study aimed to evaluate the managerial intelligence of the nurse managers in the hospitals of Sari, Iran. Our findings provide useful information to the policymakers and senior managers of the healthcare system at the macro level, as well as hospital managers at the micro level, for the recruitment, training, development, performance appraisal, job promotion, and compensation of nurse managers.

This cross-sectional, and descriptive-analytical study was conducted at seven hospitals in Sari, Iran in 2017. In total, 108 nurse managers including matrons, supervisors and head nurses of clinical wards participated in this study. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire with three dimensions of cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and political intelligence. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage) and analytical statistical tests (Spearmanchr('39')s correlation-coefficient and analysis of variance [ANOVA]).

The mean score of the managerial intelligence of the nurse managers was 0.73 (out of 1). In addition, the mean scores of cognitive, emotional, and political intelligence of the nurse managers were estimated at 0.66, 0.77, and 0.74, respectively. A positive, significant correlation was observed between EQ and PQ of nurse managers. The male and married nurse managers, those with an MSc degree, and those working in the social security hospitals scored higher on managerial intelligence. However, no significant correlations were denoted between their managerial intelligence and demographic variables.

Nurse managers of Sari hospitals scored high in managerial intelligence. The ability to analyse and solve problems plays a key role in the success of managers. Therefore, nurse managers must have high intelligence to define and analyse various problems and identify, evaluate, and select the optimal solutions. Emotions also play a pivotal role in organizational behavior. Emotional intelligence and social intelligence are essential to improving the performance of managers as they must be able to manage their own and otherschr('39') emotions properly. The nursing profession is generally full of emotions, and the high emotional intelligence of nursing managers leads to a positive direction of the emotions of the nursing staff, thereby filling the work environment with meaning and strengthening the emotional commitment of nurses. Therefore, emotional intelligence training should be implemented for nurses and nurse managers. Emotional intelligence is a learned skill through education, counseling, practice, and feedback. As such, emotional intelligence training enhances the communication skills between nurses and results in better patient outcomes. Training and practice also promote values ​such as self-confidence, honesty, fairness, self-sacrifice, criticism, support, cooperation, and patience in managers, which are a prerequisite for emotional intelligence and largely influence their leadership success. Hospitals are highly complex and multidisciplinary social organizations, which have evolved in an ever-changing environment. The nature and type of the services provided in these organizations require managers to make complex decisions within a short period. Political intelligence helps managers to network and build alliances, while also increasing their power in the organization to make important decisions quickly and obtain the necessary authority to implement their decisions. Nursing managers need political skills to optimize their organization and become the chr('39')agents of changechr('39') to improve hospital performance. Therefore, hospital managers should provide the required training to improve the political intelligence of nurse managers. Measuring the managerial intelligence of nurse managers, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and taking proper measures are among the significant influential factors in their performance and increasing the productivity of a hospital. Furthermore, developing the competency of nurse managers is essential to the sustainability and improvement of healthcare outcomes. Managerial intelligence is not static and could be taught and enhanced constantly. Therefore, nurse managers are expected to improve their social, emotional, and political skills given the unique nature of the nursing profession. Managerial intelligence should also be considered as an important competency in the recruitment of efficient nurse managers and administrators. Nursing administrators should consider cognitive, emotional, and political intelligence while hiring nurse managers. Effective nurse managers should utilize a blend of various aspects of intelligence (i.e., cognitive, emotional, and political) in this regard. Emotional intelligence is essential to effective team interactions and productivity.