Affective commitment of generational cohorts of Brazilian nurses

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to use generational cohort and professionalism theories as the framework to examine the interaction between supervisor‐subordinate relationships, work‐family conflict, discretionary power and affective commitment at the work‐life interface for Northeast Brazilian public sector professional nurses. Design/methodology/approach - Quantitative data were collected from 550 public hospital nurses in North‐Eastern Brazil. Path and multivariate analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Findings - The findings demonstrate that the impact of the independent variables on affective commitment was statistically significant but low. The impact of NPM factors such as contracting out and multiple job‐holding was a major influence on affective commitment and work‐life interface across generational cohorts. The analysis revealed significant differences between generational cohorts and suggested that affective commitment may well be enhanced by improving the quality of the work‐life interface and consequently, the wellbeing of nurses. Research limitations/implications - This study is confined to the Northeast of Brazil and confined to public sector hospitals. The self‐reporting techniques used in this study to gather information may be open to common method bias. Originality/value - The contribution of this research includes the provision of new information about the working context of professional nurses in Brazil, which is a fast growing BRICS economy where the issues surrounding the practice of nursing and nurse management are not well studied to date (i.e. NPM impact on nurse environment). North‐eastern Brazilian managers need to be more aware of generational differences and their impact on levels of affective commitment and the quality of the work‐life interface and wellbeing.