Is a stimulating work environment related to job satisfaction and retention among care professionals? A cross-sectional study in Dutch nursing homes.

Purpose: This study aims to examine how care professionals of different occupational groups perceive organizational conditions for voice behavior and whether these conditions are related to job satisfaction and retention as was experienced at nursing home (NH) facilities.

Design/methodology/approach: An online survey study was conducted among care professionals, (middle) managers and policy officers of 175 Dutch nursing home (NH) facilities (N = 3,932 respondents). Data were collected between November 2020 and January 2022. Organizational conditions were clustered into four categories: dealing with incidents, formal opportunities, supportive management and teams' improvement orientation.

Findings: Certified nurse assistants (CNAs) and registered nurses (RNs) were more critical about the organizational conditions than other respondents from the same NH facility. Linear mixed effect models showed that organizational conditions were positively related to job satisfaction and perceived employee retention (p < 0.001). Hierarchical multiple regression models show that "teams' improvement orientation" and "supportive management" are strong independent predictors of job satisfaction and perceived employee retention (p < 0.001).

Practical implications: It is important that leaders realize that their own perspectives may not correspond with those of frontline care workers. This emphasizes the importance of capturing different perspectives on organizational conditions and the important role of middle managers who are in the position to create stimulating working environments to retain care professionals for NH care.

Originality/value: This study has the unique opportunity to examine the relation between organizational conditions and job satisfaction among different occupational groups in Dutch NHs. Showing that care professionals were considerably more critical about the conditions and their job satisfaction compared to management and policy officers.