The development of a scale to measure the proactive socialization behavior and its impact on turnover intention of new nurses

Abstract

Objective To preliminarily develop a scale to measure the proactive socialization behavior of new nurses and test validity and reliability of the scale, to explore the impact of proactive socialization behavior on turnover intention. Methods Using a questionnaire survey method to investigate 696 new nurses who had worked within three years in nursing organization, structural equation model and hierarchical line regression methods were performed to analyze the data. Results Proactive socialization behavior scale included eight items under one dimension; the consistency coefficient of scale was 0.858; new scale had a good convergent and predictive validity; the proactive socialization behavior of new nurses was significantly negative related to turnover intention (β=-0.236, P<0.01). Conclusions The proactive socialization behavior scale has a good reliability, convergent and predictive validity. Meanwhile, new nurses with higher level of proactive socialization behavior have lower turnover intention. Because they can quickly fit the new environment, role definition and organizational culture, which in turn organization embeddedness is promoted. Key words: New nurses; Organizational socialization behavior; Scale development; Reliability and validity