Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background & Aim: One of the primary tasks of the managers is staff motivation in order to improve their performance to a high level. It has been staff struggles to accomplish the organizational goals and decisions. The “goal setting theory” has designed for this aim. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of implementing “Goal Setting Theory” by nurse managers on staff nurses’ job motivation.

  Material & Method: This study was quasi-experimental one in which 51 nurses from one hospital were allocated to either experimental (n=30) or control (n=21) group. The two groups were compared before and after intervention for their job motivation. The instrument, measuring job motivation with 48 items, was used after providing content validity and reliability ) r= 0.80 ( . In order to avoid exposure bias, at first, job satisfaction in control group in two times were measured. Then, the intervention (goal setting theory) was implemented by subjects of experimental group for three months in three stages a) nurse managers development, b) staff nurse development, c) implemented discharge planning as a “goal” by staff nurse. Data were analyzed by SPSS.

  Results: The results showed that the level of staff nurse job motivation in two groups before intervention were moderate and two groups were homogenous (P=1.000). After intervention, the level of staff nurse job motivation in control group did not changed (P=1.000), but in experimental group, the level of staff nurse job motivation was significantly increased to a higher level (P=0.000).

  Conclusion: Implementing the “goal setting theory” based on the methods used in this study showed that whenever nurse managers had a specific and clarified goal for nurses, the level of job motivation in staff nurse increased to a higher level.