METHOD
A qualitative design with a grounded theory approach was
used for the data collection and analysis of the experiences of
Iranian nurse leaders.
Ethical issues
The study was approved by the research council affiliated
with Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Next, permission
was obtained from the hospital directors to interview
the nurse managers in their work setting.All the participants
were informed about the purpose of the study. They were
informed that participation in the study was voluntary and
that they could refuse to participate or withdraw from the
study at any time without penalty.Moreover, they were reassured
that their responses would be confidential. Lastly, those
who agreed to participate in the study were asked to sign an
informed consent document. The interviews were conducted
in private rooms by the main researcher and recorded on
audiotapes.
Sampling
The participants initially were recruited by purposeful sampling,
which was followed by a theoretical sampling (Coyne,
1997). The sample consisted of 12 nurses (four men, eight
women) in four hospitals in Iran. They had experienced different
levels of nursing management positions. Their age
range was 36–52 years, with an average age of 45.8 years.
Their work experience range was between 12 and 27 years
(mean = 19 years) and their mean managerial experience was
8.3 years.
Data collection
The semistructured interviews were employed to collect
in-depth data in 2007. The major questions in the interviews
were as follows:
1 Would you please share with me your experiences of
communication in your workplace?
2 Would you please talk about the factors that are influential
in choosing your preferred communicative behaviors?
The interviews lasted between 40 and 90 min. The data were
collected until data saturation in the data analysis was
reached; that is, when interviewing yielded only repeated
information and nothing new was found. It is worth noting
that the data variability also was explained by the analysis
(Speziale & Carpenter, 2007).
Data analysis
To analyze and interpret the data, Glaser’s (1992) grounded
theory approach was used in developing a theory.All of the
interview content was transcribed verbatim and then the text
was read several times. Meaning units were identified and
condensed in order to clarify the meaning of the content.
After that, they were subsequently labeled using an open
code.Then, the codes were grouped thematically into 17 categories.
Comparisons were made within and among the categories.
The categories then were grouped into three themes.
Throughout the interviewing and analyzing process, notes
(memos) were written to capture the thoughts and ideas that
emerged. In addition, figures were drawn to illuminate these
ideas. The new and old findings, the emerged ideas, the categories,
and the underlying text were constantly compared
and any new question that arose was further elaborated in
the following interviews (Charmaz, 2006). Finally, the
emerged themes were described and the relationships
between them were established.
Assertiveness process of nurse leaders 121