Nursing staff's perceived appreciation by senior management was operationalised with the following question: 'Do you feel appreciated by the senior management within the organisation?
Its senior managers get Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs), which give the holder the increase in a company's stock value between two dates.
Those staff members who experienced less work pressure and more appreciation by senior management felt more occupational commitment.
Furthermore, earlier research suggests that greater communication within the organisation and perceived appreciation by senior management are also positively related to job satisfaction and/or organisational commitment.
Reducing work pressure and increasing appreciation by senior management in particular have positive consequences for nursing staff's self-perceived ability to continue working until the official retirement age.
Our results showed that work pressure and appreciation by senior management in particular are important in explaining the self-perceived ability to continue working in the current line of work.
Contrary to expectations, work pressure and appreciation by senior management also showed a direct relationship with the ability to continue working in addition to the indirect relationship through job satisfaction (Table 3 and Table 4).
The job characteristics of autonomy, work pressure and supportive leadership and the organisational characteristics of educational opportunities, communication and appreciation by senior management together have substantial impact on job satisfaction.
The separate mediation models showed that job satisfaction indeed mediates the relationship between autonomy, work pressure, supportive leadership, educational opportunities, communication and appreciation by senior management on the one hand and the ability to continue working on the other hand (Table 4).
Finally, our study adds to previous studies on the relationship between job and organisational characteristics and job satisfaction (e.g. [ 13, 17]), by showing that communication within the organisation and perceived appreciation by senior management are also associated with job satisfaction.
