Psychology Research and Behavior Management (Sep 2019)
Mitigating effect of perceived organizational support on stress in the presence of workplace ostracism in the Pakistani nursing sector
Abstract
Muddassar Sarfraz,1 Wang Qun,1,2 Ambreen Sarwar,3 Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah,3 Muhammad Kashif Imran,4 Imran Shafique3 1Department of Management and HR, Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Provincial Collaborative Center of World Water Valley and Water Ecological Civilization, Nanjing 211100, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Management Science, Comsats University Islamabad, Lahore 54000, Pakistan; 4Department of Management Science, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, PakistanCorrespondence: Ambreen Sarwar Muhammad Ibrahim AbdullahDepartment of Management Sciences, Comsats University Islamabad, Lahore 54000, PakistanEmail [email protected]; [email protected]: Nursing has a reputation for being a predominantly stressful profession. Prior studies focus on the overt antecedents of stress like bullying, harassment, and verbal aggression from patients as well as colleagues. Employee stress has been receiving attention for decades, yet there is a research gap on the role of workplace ostracism as an antecedent of stress for nurses. This study aimed to consider the effect of workplace ostracism on the perceived stress of nurses while considering the moderating role of perceived organizational support.Methods: This study is quantitative. A time-lagged survey was conducted in private and public hospitals of Pakistan. Data were collected from 241 nurses. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software and analysis of a moment structures (AMOS) software were employed for data analysis, such as bootstrapping analysis, Sobel test, and regression analysis.Results: Results demonstrated that workplace ostracism is positively associated with stress, while perceived organizational support has a moderating relationship. Perceived organizational support mitigates the adverse effects of workplace ostracism on nurses.Conclusion: This study contributes significantly to nursing literature by identifying workplace ostracism as one of the significant antecedents of stress for nurses. Perceived organizational support shows that employees are cared for and appreciated by the organization, which lessens the strength of perceived stress due to workplace ostracism.Keywords: nurses, stress, perceived organizational support, workplace ostracism, Pakistan
