Work alienation and its relationship with job crafting and job embeddedness among a group of Iranian nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Background: The difficult work conditions of nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic can cause them work alienation. Work alienation is in turn associated with negative consequences such as turnover intention. Therefore, identifying the contributing factors of work alienation is essential.

Aim: This study aimed to assess the relationship of work alienation with job crafting and job embeddedness among a group of Iranian nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A total of 332 eligible nurses participated in this descriptive correlational study. The data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the work alienation measure, the job crafting scale and the global measure of job embeddedness.

Results: The mean scores of work alienation, job embeddedness and job crafting were 22.67 ± 6.46 (possible range: 7-49), 21.05 ± 3.65 (possible range: 7-35) and 77.54 ± 11.93 (possible range: 21-105), respectively. Work alienation had a significant inverse correlation with job embeddedness and job crafting. Job crafting and job embeddedness significantly predicted 44% of the variance of work alienation.

Conclusions: Around half of the variance of work alienation is explained by job crafting and job embeddedness. Nursing managers can use strategies to improve nurses' job embeddedness and job crafting in order to reduce the probability of their work alienation.