ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Little is known about the associated factors with organizational citizenship behavior among Chinese nurses combating COVID-19. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between autonomy, optimism, role conflict, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behavior based on moderated mediation models among Chinese nurses combating COVID-19. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on a sample of 368 nurses supporting the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital, China. According to the Job Demands-Resources model, two moderated mediation models were tested, in which autonomy/optimism was associated with organizational citizenship behavior through work engagement, when role conflict served as a moderator. RESULTS: This current study found the mediating effect of work engagement and the moderating effect of role conflict on the relationship between autonomy/optimism and organizational citizenship behavior among nurses. Of note, nurses working in the COVID-19 epidemic viewed role conflict as challenge job demands rather than hindrance job demands. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, organizational citizenship behavior can be affected by work engagement and role conflict. Nursing management is suggested to put emphasis on work engagement and role conflict among nurses supporting the COVID-19 epidemic.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: High levels of organisational citizenship behaviour can enable nurses to cooperate with coworkers effectively to provide a high quality of nursing care during the outbreak of COVID-19. However, the association between autonomy, optimism, work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to test if the effect of autonomy on organisational citizenship behaviour through the mediating effects of optimism and work engagement. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study. SETTING: The study was conducted in the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in China. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 242 nurses who came from multiple areas of China to work at the Wuhan Jinyintan hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic participated in this study. METHODS: A serial mediation model (model 6) of the PROCESS macro in SPSS was adopted to test the hypotheses, and a 95% CI for the indirect effects was constructed by using Bootstrapping. RESULTS: The autonomy-organisational citizenship behaviour relationship was mediated by optimism and work engagement, respectively. In addition, optimism and work engagement mediated this relationship serially. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study may have implications for improving organisational citizenship behaviour. The effects of optimism and work engagement suggest a potential mechanism of action for the autonomy-organisational citizenship behaviour linkage. A multifaceted intervention targeting organisational citizenship behaviour through optimism and work engagement may help improve the quality of nursing care among nurses supporting patients with COVID-19.