Abstract
Nursing education today is one of the merits of the Ministry of Higher Education. Higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established to enhance the nation's growth and the well-being of Saudis. There is movement toward advanced nursing education in order to keep pace with today's health demand. The Nursing Faculty in Saudi have a mission. Typically, this mission covers teaching, research, and community service. The interaction of these factors may provoke Faculty of Nursing role conflict and role ambiguity that has an impact on their commitments. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of academic nurse role ambiguity and role conflict on nursing faculty commitment in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A non-experimental descriptive cross-sectional correlational study was conducted. Three largest universities were selected. Full-time nurse faculty employees were recruited to participate in the study, with a total of 216 questionnaires returned over a three month period, giving a response rate of 88%. All respondents completed the Meyer and Allen organizational commitment instrument, the role conflict, and role ambiguity scale. Self-reported survey procedures were used to collect the study data. Descriptive procedures, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients were used in this study. Results: The majority of participants are expatriates with a mean age of 36.61 +/- 10.47. The results revealed that the nursing faculty faced role ambiguity and role conflict. In addition, Nursing Faculty commitment was normative commitment followed by continuance commitment. Role ambiguity among faculty was negatively correlated to continuance and normative commitment while role conflict correlated to all commitment dimensions. There were significant mean differences between role ambiguity and role conflict and the nationality of nursing faculty. Recommendations: The results of this study reveal that many nursing faculty are experiencing role ambiguity, role conflict, which can lead to a decrease in organizational commitment. Nursing academic administrators ought to create a work environment that dilutes the role conflict and ambiguity in order to enhance excellence in academic scholarship. This will lead faculty to immerse in their own role of teaching, research, and community service and develop a sense of commitment to the organization. [Nazik M.A. Zakari. The Impact of Nurse Role Ambiguity and Role Conflict on Nursing Faculty Commitment in Saudi Arabia. Life Science Journal. 2011; 8(3): 179-186] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com.