Managers' Implementation of Benchmarking and Its Relation to Accomplishment of Competitive Advantage and Flourishing from Nurses' Perspective at One of Al-Azhar University Hospitals, Egypt

Background: Benchmarking is a quality methodology for organizations to reach their ideal processes and ideal outcomes through using other organizations as a reference. Aim of the study: Determining the relationship between Managers' implementation of benchmarking and accomplishment of competitive advantage and flourishing of staff (established via nurses’ points of view) at Al-Azhar university hospital, New Damietta, Egypt. Methods: Setting: the study was carried out at Al-Azhar university hospital, New Damietta, Damietta governorate, Egypt. Design: a descriptive correlational design. Subjects: was consisted of 218 nurses. Tools and procedure: three different tools (benchmarking tool, competitive advantage tool, and flourishing scale). The fieldwork lasted from January to March 2021. Results: all studied nurses were female their mean ages were (29.81) with a standard deviation of (5.54). (70%) of them have a diploma in nursing, (9.2%) have a bachelor's in nursing science, also (6.4%) have a doctoral degree in nursing sciences. Moreover, the total mean score of managers' accomplishment of a competitive advantage as seen by nurses was (39.62) with a standard deviation of 9.29, and the total mean score of nurses flourishing was (48.35) with a standard deviation of (8.33). Also, The study revealed that managers implement benchmarking for accomplishing competitive advantage with a coefficient of determination (R2 =0.743), and the degree of effect (β=0.862). Managers' implementation of benchmarking leads to the flourishing of staff with a coefficient of determination (R2 =0.286), and the degree of effect (β=0.535). Conclusions: nurses have high mean scores of regarding managers' implementation of benchmarking and accomplishment of competitive advantage, Also, nurses have high flourishing scores. Hence, there is a statistically significant correlation between managers' implementation of benchmarking and their accomplishment of competitive advantage as seen by nurses, and nurses' flourishing. Implications for nursing management: Engaging nurses in important and innovative reflective practices have the importance of being with others in relationships and interaction patterns that leads to a high standard of performance, make them happy, and thrive at work. The analysis should be expanded to other contexts, both cross-sectional and longitudinally, as a guideline for further studies. This would make it possible to generalize to a wider population.