Value congruence and job satisfaction among nurses: a human relations perspective.

The relationship between job satisfaction and value congruence within four organizational value areas was studied among nurses at surgery wards. Congruence between perceived and desired human relations values and social climate independently determined attitudes toward the nurse's ward. Social climate was operationalized as the habit of chatting with colleagues, and was inversely related to time pressure. Ward attitudes predicted job satisfaction, although structural equation modeling suggested that human relations value congruence also predicted job satisfaction directly, in addition to its effect through ward attitudes. Human relations value congruence thus appeared as an important ingredient of person-organization fit in nursing. Copyright 2004 Elsevier Ltd.