Nurses' organizational climate of perceived organizational support and its relationships with psychosocial working conditions and psychological contracts: A longitudinal questionnaire study.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the longitudinal relationships between nurses' organizational climate of perceived organizational support (POS-climate) and their psychosocial working conditions and psychological contracts. A two-wave longitudinal cohort questionnaire study was carried out among registered nurses employed within six hospitals in two regions in Sweden (n = 711). Two cross-lagged panel models were tested after ensuring scalar factorial invariance of the measurement models. The first model investigated longitudinal relationships between psychosocial working conditions and the POS-climate, while the second model investigated such relationships between the psychological contracts and the POS-climate. The results indicated that influence at work and an ideology-infused psychological contract had positive effects on the nurses' POS-climate. These results highlight the importance of providing nurses with such influence, and of a shared ideology within the entire health-care organization, centered on the ethical values of the health-care professions.