The impact of nurses' organizational commitment on their perceptions of the work environment: Strong mediating effect of the psychological contract

Abstract

Objective: The objective is to assess the direct and indirect effects of nurses' organizational commitment (OC) on their work environment perceptions (WEP) and the role of the psychological contract (PC). Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study of 3047 registered nurses in four Chinese hospitals was conducted. The Essentials of Magnetism II (Chinese version), OC, and PC scales were used in the study, and the structural equation modeling was used to assess the connections among variables. Results: The results showed that OC was positively correlated with WEP (r = 0.561, P < 0.001), and PC was negatively correlated with the WEP (r = −0.717, P < 0.001), and OC (r = −0.739, P < 0.001). Nurses' PC played a strong mediating role between OC and WEP, accounting for 87.64% of the total effect. Besides, PC played an important role in creating a healthy work environment. Conclusions: The exploration of the relationships among WEP, PC, and OC provides new insights for hospital managers to build a better work environment for nurses, which is conducive to maintaining a stable nurse team and providing high-quality nursing services for patients.