THE ANTECEDENTS OF TASK PERFORMANCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

This study was conducted in contribution to the existing literature of Human Resource Management practices adopted in the healthcare sector of Pakistan. The study aims to explore the impact of structural empowerment, authentic leadership, and professional nursing practices on organizational citizenship behaviour and task performance in hospitals and clinics. In literature this particular area has not attracted the attention of researchers specifically in the field of healthcare in Pakistan. This has had the result of producing very high turnover rates for nurses, negative taboos associated with the field, professional and social difficulties for nurses to perform their tasks and mismanagement from the policy makers in the field. The core objective of the study was to observe the organizational behaviour of nurses, track their performance, and identify the factors affecting them. To analyse these factors, the study was designed as an exercise in quantitative data collection and research, conducted in a real life hospital. Literature review had indicated that the performance of nurses has significantly decreased over the past few years, hence providing an ideal scenario for the study conducted. Regression analysis was conducted through SPSS to check the relationship of independent and dependent variables. The analysis performed on the data collected from 271 nurses supported the hypotheses and proved a positive relationship between the variables selected for the study. The results indicate that there is a significant impact of structural empowerment, authentic leadership and professional nursing practice environment on task performance and OCB of nurses. Therefore, management should encourage the culture of empowerment for nurses so that their performance can be improved. Training programs should also be designed in order to train fresh graduate nurses and also those who are experienced but are in need of training to improve their performance.