Organisational support, organisational identification and organisational citizenship behaviour among male nurses

Aims The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between organisational support, organisational identification, and organisational citizenship behaviour and the predictors of organisational citizenship behaviour in Taiwanese male nurses. Background The turnover rate among male nurses is twice that of female nurses. Organisational citizenship behaviour is the predictor of turnover intention. Little information is available on the relationship between organisational support, organisational identification and organisational citizenship behaviour, particularly for male nurses. Methods Data were collected in 2010 from a questionnaire mailed to 167 male nurses in Taiwan. A cross‐sectional survey with simple sampling was used in this study. Results The results showed that organisational identification and organisational support were correlated with organisational citizenship behaviour. Organisational distinctiveness, organisational support of work conditions and the type of organisation were the main predictors of organisational citizenship behaviour. Together they accounted for 40.7% of the total variation in organisational citizenship behaviour. Organisational distinctiveness was the most critical predictor, accounting for 29.6% of the variation. Conclusion Organisational support and organisational identification have positive relationships with organisational behaviour. Organisational distinctiveness is an important factor in explaining organisational citizenship behaviour in male nurses. Implications for nursing management This finding provides concrete directions for managers to follow when providing organisational identification, in particular, the organisational distinctiveness will help male nurses to display increasingly more organisational citizenship behaviour.