Effect of pride and respect on occupational identity and cooperative behavior of nurses

Abstract

Offering safe and high quality medical services is essential to the success of any medical institution. Medical workers need to collaborate with other types of workers, and must engage in tasks beyond the call of duty in order to assure quality service. This study examined the psychological processes underlying such service offered by nurses, from the perspective of social identity theory. A questionnaire survey of 217 nurses was conducted. Results indicated the following. First, occupational pride, and respect from colleagues increased occupational identification of nurses, while in turn, occupational identification increased mutual cooperation. Second, respect from colleagues increased extra-role cooperation. Third, occupational identification increased willingness of nurses to cooperate with staff of other occupational categories, and organizational identification increased their desire to remain in the organization. These results suggest that offering assured, quality service warrants nurses to be able to identify with their occupational and organizational categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)