Nurses’ work patterns: perceived organizational support and psychological contracts

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 518-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Mallette

With unfolding human resource challenges in health care, little is known of the impact of changing work patterns and employment relationships on the organization and the nursing profession. Social Exchange Theory (perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological contracts) was used to gain understanding of the influence of nurse's employment patterns on employment relationships and individual, organizational and professional outcomes. The sample consisted of 650 randomly selected nurses employed in full-time, part-time, and casual positions across healthcare settings in Ontario, Canada. A cross-sectional survey design explored demographics, volition, POS, psychological contract, job satisfaction, career commitment, and job and career withdrawal. Work patterns and employment relationships are complex and cannot be examined in isolation of other variables such as volition and work congruence. Full-time nurses were found to have more of a relational psychological contract than part-time or casual nurses. The hypothesis was supported that the psychological contract has a direct effect on nurses’ job satisfaction, job withdrawal, career commitment, and career withdrawal. Nurses want to work different work patterns depending on their age and work-life demands. The importance of fostering strong employment relationships and relational psychological contracts to address such issues as an ageing workforce, nursing shortages, and economic demands is highlighted.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical foundation for the effects of servant leadership and to examine the mediating effects of perceived organizational support, job satisfaction and job embeddedness on employees turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach Data is gathered from the responses of 115 full-time employees from a number of organizations in a metropolitan area in the southeastern United States to a questionnaire survey. Findings Servant leadership is a significant predictor of POS, job embeddedness and job satisfaction. Support is found for the mediating effect of POS and job embeddedness on the servant leadership-turnover intentions relationship. Practical implications Organizations can put steps into place to decrease turnover intentions through increasing links between individuals within the workplace and community, increasing potential sacrifices and adopting a servant leadership style of management. Originality/value This paper has an original approach as it examines the mechanisms through which servant leadership affects turnover intentions.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Cheng ◽  
Xing Cao ◽  
Limin Guo ◽  
Qing Xia

PurposeThis study aims to examine the moderating effects of psychological entitlement and perceived organizational support (POS) on the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) and job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 217 full-time employees of an Internet company in China at two points in time separated by about one month. Hierarchical regression and simple slope analyses were conducted to test hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed that WCBA was negatively related to job satisfaction and that this relationship could be mitigated by POS. Moreover, psychological entitlement aggravated this relationship, and this aggravating effect was stronger when POS was at low levels.Practical implicationsManagers should avoid intervening employees' nonwork domains too much. If this is unavoidable, managers should provide adequate organizational support to help employees cope with the challenges brought by WCBA. Besides, managers need to pay close attention to highly entitled employees and take measures to modify their expectations.Originality/valueFirst, this study enriches the understanding of what WCBA is and how WCBA works by investigating the influencing mechanism of WCBA from the perspectives of effort–reward imbalance and job demands–resources. Second, by verifying the moderating effects of psychological entitlement and POS, this study provides insights into the boundaries of the WCBA–job satisfaction relationship. Third, this study contributes to the literature on psychological entitlement by identifying its one applicable condition.


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