The impact of workplace spirituality dimensions on organisational citizenship behaviour among nurses with the mediating effect of affective organisational commitment

Aim To investigate the relationship between workplace spirituality dimensions and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among nurses through the mediating effect of affective organisational commitment. Background Nurses' OCB has been considered recently to improve the quality of services to patients and subsequently, their performance. As an influential attitude, affective organisational commitment has been recognized to influence OCB, and ultimately, organisational performance. Meanwhile, workplace spirituality is introduced as a new organisational behaviour concept to increase affective commitment influencing employees' OCB. Methods The cross-sectional study and the respective data were collected with a questionnaire-based survey. The questionnaires were distributed to 305 nurses employed in four public and general Iranian hospitals. To analyse the data, descriptive statistics, Pearson coefficient, simple regression, multiple regression and path analyses were also conducted. Results The results indicated that workplace spirituality dimensions including meaningful work, a sense of community and an alignment with organisational values have a significant positive relationship with OCB. Moreover, affective organisational commitment mediated the impact of workplace spirituality on OCB. Conclusion The concept of workplace spirituality through its dimensions predicts nurses' OCB, and affective organisational commitment partially mediated the relationship between workplace spirituality and OCB. Implications for nursing management Nurses' managers should consider the potentially positive influence of workplace spirituality on OCB and affective commitment among their nurses. With any plan to increase workplace spirituality, the respective managers can improve nurses' performance and would be of considerable importance in the healthcare system.