The relationships among social capital, organisational commitment and customer-oriented prosocial behaviour of hospital nurses

Aims. This study examines the perceptions of registered nurses of social capital, organisational commitment and customer-oriented prosocial behaviour. Additionally, this study also addresses a conceptual model for testing how registered nurses' perceptions of three types of social capital influence their organisational commitment, in turn intensifying customer-oriented prosocial behaviour, including role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service. Background. Customer-oriented prosocial behaviour explains differences in job satisfaction and job performance. However, the critical role of customer orientation in the hospital setting has yet to be explored. Design. Survey. Methods. The survey was conducted to obtain data from registered nurses working for a large Taiwanese medical centre, yielding 797 usable responses and a satisfactory response rate of 86·7%. The partial least squares method was adopted to obtain parameter estimates and test proposed hypotheses. Results. The study measurements display satisfactory reliability, as well as both convergent and discriminant validities. All hypotheses were supported. Empirical results indicate that registered nurses' perceptions of social capital were significantly impacted the extent of organisational commitment, which in turn significantly influenced customer-oriented prosocial behaviour. Conclusion. By stimulating nursing staff commitment, health care providers can urge them to pursue organisational goals and provide high quality customer service. To enhance organisational commitment, health care managers should endeavour to create interpersonal interaction platforms in addition to simply offering material rewards. Relevance to clinical practice. Nurses act as contact employees for their patient customers in the hospital, and they are required to provide patient safety and service quality. This study shows that nurses with high organisational commitment are willing to provide customer-oriented prosocial activities, which in turn enhances patient satisfaction. ? 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.