The impact of social support and job stress on public health nurses' organizational citizenship behaviors in rural Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between job stress, social support, and organizational citizenship behaviors, by using job satisfaction and organizational commitment as intervening variables among public health nurses (PHNs) in rural areas of Taiwan.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional design was used to sample all 265 PHNs in two rural counties of Taiwan. Of those, 231 (87.2%) PHNs responded.

METHOD: A mailed survey questionnaire was sent to subjects for completion in early 2004. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analyses, and multiple regression analyses. With six multiple regression models, intervening effects were explored by the approach of Baron and Kenny (1986).

RESULTS: Supervisor support indirectly influenced organizational citizenship behaviors through the intervening effect of organizational commitment, whereas, kinship support, role ambiguity, and workload demonstrated direct impacts on organizational citizenship behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insights into how social support and job stress impacted PHNs' organizational citizenship behaviors. Those PHNs who experienced more supervisor support exhibited higher levels of organizational citizenship behaviors via the intervening effect of organizational commitment.