Job embeddedness among young shift-working nurses at a newly established hospital in South Korea: Associations with emotional intelligence, emotional leadership, and work-life balance.

PURPOSE: Newly established hospitals often face difficulty retaining young nurses due to organizational instability; however, traditional compensation-based strategies may be insufficient. This study examined the relative contribution of person-environment fit factors-emotional intelligence, emotional leadership, and work-life balance-to job embeddedness among young shift-working nurses in a newly established hospital.

METHODS

This cross-sectional descriptive correlational study included 132 shift-working nurses younger than 30 years who were employed at a newly established university hospital in South Korea, which opened in 2021. Data were collected using the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Emotional Leadership Scale, the Work-Life Balance Scale, and the Job Embeddedness Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

Hierarchical regression analysis showed that demographic variables alone accounted for 10.5% of the variance in job embeddedness in Model 1. After the fit-related variables were added in Model 2, the explanatory power increased significantly to 40.8% (ΔR2 = 30.4%, p < .001). Emotional intelligence emerged as the strongest predictor (β = 0.29, p < .001), followed by work-life balance (β = 0.27, p = .001) and emotional leadership (β = 0.21, p = .017). Notably, work unit, which was significant in Model 1, was no longer significant after the inclusion of fit-related variables.

CONCLUSIONS

In the context of organizational instability, job embeddedness was more strongly associated with fit-related proxy variables conceptually related to person-environment fit than with structural characteristics alone. These findings suggest that fit-oriented strategies may help support nurse retention in resource-constrained, newly established healthcare organizations.