Psychological capital, work engagement and individual work performance amongst nursing staff

Abstract

The nursing profession functions within the healthcare sector and focuses mainly on the promotion and maintenance of the health of individuals within the community. Compared to other healthcare practitioners, nurses spend the majority of their time with patients and have an impact on their recovery through the quality care that they provide. Facing numerous adversities in an under-resourced public healthcare sector has an adverse effect on the quality care provided to patients. Research has found that psychological capital (as a personal resource) has a positive impact on both work engagement and performance and should be investigated within the public healthcare sector. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationships that exist between psychological capital, work engagement and individual work performance amongst nurses in the Sedibeng public healthcare sector, including whether work engagement mediated the relationship between psychological capital and individual work performance. The study followed a quantitative, cross-sectional approach with a non-probability convenient sample (n = 212). The measuring instruments that were utilised are the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-24), the Work Engagement Scale (WES) and three-factor Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ). Correlations were used to determine the relationships between the constructs; confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the structure of the latent variables; and regression analysis was used to evaluate the structured model against the hypotheses. The results of the study confirmed that there are positive relationships between the constructs. The relationships between psychological capital and work engagement, and work engagement and individual work performance, were practically and statistically significant; however, the relationship between psychological capital and individual work performance was statistically, but not practically significant. Work engagement was confirmed to have an indirect effect on the relationship between psychological capital and individual work performance. The findings suggest that managers and human resource professionals within the healthcare sector should consider incorporating interventions focused on the development of nurses’ levels of psychological capital, and increasing their levels of work engagement in order to improve their performance. These elements should aid in the improvement of organisational outcomes.