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M.Cur. (Professional Nursing)It is important that the nursing service manager in a nursing service exercises a participative managerial style in order to promote staff retention and job satisfaction of the professional nurse. No guidelines exist on what is participative management or how it can be implemented in a nursing service. Little evidence exists of any nursing research having been conducted on participative management in South Africa, nor has research been done from the Judeo-Christian approach. This study, participative management in a nursing service, was conducted in three phases in order to answer the following questions: a) what is participative management? b) how does participative management work? c) what guidelines can be formulated to implement participative management in a nursing service? The first phase of concept identification was effected by means of interviews with management specialists and a literature control. In the second phase a conceptual definition of participative management was formulated. In the third phase the process of participative management was identified and described by means of interviews with management specialists and a literature control. Through this process guidelines were formulated to implement participative management in nursing services. During a workshop with nursing service managers in charge posts in the public sector hospitals in Transvaal, guidelines for the implementation of participative management were streamlined and verified with a managerial specialist. Participative management in a nursing service is a dynamic process of creative problernsolving and mutual decision-making within the nursing service between the nursing service manager and the professional nurse. It is a process of information exchange and consultation between the nursing service manager and the nurse, and undergoes three phases during implementation: namely the prepajgtory, the implementation and the evaluation phase. During these phases the nursing service manager acts as a facilitator in optimising the professional maturity level of the nurse. This promotes a co-responsibility and co-accountability within the decision-making process in order to promote wholeness in the nursing service. The managerial style of the nursing service manager promotes the mission and goals of the nursing service, improves job satisfaction, personnel management and quality nursing care. This facilitates wholeness, in the sense of total well-being, within the professional nurse and the patient. Recommendations forthcoming from this study should address nursing practice, nursing education and nursing research. It is recommended that participative management should be implemented, by means of the guidelines that have been formulated, in a nursing service. A nursing.model for particjnativ:e management in a nursing service should be developed. Further recommendations are that the effect of participative management in a nursing service on professional nurses, quality nursing care, nursing management, job satisfaction experienced by nurses within a multi-cultural context and personnel turnover be examined