[T]he way to create a culture of retention is, in fact, to create a culture of engagement and contribution.
—Jo Manion (2004, p. 30)

When employees feel engaged and motivated, they are often more committed to an organization. Organizational commitment is broadly defined as an employee’s intent to stay with the organization. Nurse managers can have significant influence on an organization’s culture and thereby on employee engagement and commitment.

To prepare

• Select one of the following perspectives and complete the corresponding survey for this Discussion. Do not look at the scoring directions until after you have completed the evaluation.
  • If you hold or have held a management position in your recent or present workplace, access the document, “Creating a Culture of Engagement: Manager Survey,” found in this week’s Learning Resources.
  • If you have yet to hold a management position, or would prefer to answer the survey from the perspective of an employee, access the document, “Creating a Culture of Engagement: Employee Survey,” found in this week’s Learning Resources.
• After you have completed the survey, reflect on the results. Based on score breakdown, select the culture cluster you consider the most critical to address in this workplace. Then, review this week’s media, “Recruitment, Retention, and Employee Development.” What strategies could you, as a nurse manager, employ to address this cluster?
• Consider how this culture facilitates or negates your feelings of organizational commitment.

By Day 3

Post an evaluation of a recent or past workplace by sharing the total score of your survey. Explain whether this score accurately captures the culture of this workplace. Identify the culture cluster that you consider the most critical to address, and suggest at least one intervention you could initiate to effectively change this aspect of the workplace’s culture. Explain how this culture encouraged or diminished your feelings of organizational commitment.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days using one or more of the following approaches:

• Find a colleague whose critical culture cluster is one of your stronger ones. Share a strategy for strengthening this aspect of his or her culture.
• Use authentic experiences and this week’s Learning Resources to evaluate a colleague’s intervention, offering suggestions and insights.
• Assess a colleague’s workplace. Applying what you know about your own intrinsic motivators, explain why this workplace would or would not be a good fit for you.