The effects of organizational initiating actions on nurses' outcomes: A social exchange perspective

Abstract

[eng] Nurses are critical a part of the healthcare system and determine overall patient satisfaction and quality care. However, according to the World Health Organization, the scarcity of nurses on a global level has been quantified as a shortfall of 5.9 million nursing professionals. Accordingly, retaining nursing professionals and motivating them to foster their commitment and performance is a significant challenge for organizations. This thesis takes part in this conversation and evaluates how nurses' perception of positive organizational initiating actions, such as perceived organizational support, and the perception of negative initiating actions, such as perceived organizational politics, may affect different outcomes for nurses. Drawing on social exchange theory, this thesis elaborates specific hypotheses that evaluate the effects of organizational support and organizational politics on different responses from nurses, such as affective commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and quality of care. Through three stand-alone potential academic articles, this thesis found that nurses' self-concept plays a key role in explaining the positive effects of organizational support on affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior toward different targets. Moreover, the results of this thesis show that the tested positive effect of organizational support on the quality of care is mediated by positive and negative social exchange behavioral responses, such as organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization and organizational deviance, respectively. Finally, the current study found that the positive effect of perceptions of organizational politics on organizational deviance among nurses is moderated by their professional self-concept, and that affective commitment mediates the negative effects of perceived organizational politics on organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization.