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Abstract
Objectives Work addiction is not contingent on personality alone; it is also impacted by social contextual factors. Work addiction influences the perceived quality of care and intention to remain in healthcare sector. The current study seeks to understand the role of ethical climate as a potential organisational lever to reduce such addiction, especially among newcomers.
Design We contacted a sample of Canadian healthcare organisations to collect quantitative data using an online questionnaire from November 2021 to February 2022. All constructs (ethical climate, work addiction, perceived quality of care, intention to quit the profession) were measured using validated psychometric scales. 860 respondents provided complete questionnaires. We analysed the data using structural equation modelling and regression analysis.
Results Work addiction mediated the indirect relationship between ethical climate and the intention to quit the profession (β=−0.053; 95% CI (−0.083 to –0.029); p<0.001) and with quality of care (β=0.049; 95% CI (0.028, 0.077); p<0.001). For each increase of 1 SD of ethical climate, the total effects regarding the variations in the outcomes were more important at low rather than high levels of tenure for work addiction (−11%, −2%), perceived quality of care (23%, 11%) and intention to quit the profession (−30%, −23%), respectively.
Conclusion Ethical climate in healthcare organisations has a significant and beneficial relationship with healthcare workers’ (HCWs) work addiction behaviours. In turn, this relationship is related to greater perceived quality of care and higher intention to remain, especially for HCWs with lower tenure.
- Health policy
- Surveys
- Social sciences
- Management
- Attitudes
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. Data include deidentified participant data in the form of answers to all used items and demographics questions used in the presented study. Data are available from the first author (ORCID ID 0000-0002-6708-0258), upon reasonable request to replicate or add the data to a meta-analysis research project.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. Data include deidentified participant data in the form of answers to all used items and demographics questions used in the presented study. Data are available from the first author (ORCID ID 0000-0002-6708-0258), upon reasonable request to replicate or add the data to a meta-analysis research project.
Footnotes
Contributors FM and DC developed the questionnaire. FM, CG and AC-B participated in the distribution of the questionnaire and data collection. FM and PG conducted the data cleaning, initial analyses and theorisation. FM and PG proceeded with the redaction of the first version of the article. DC revised the theorisation and statistical analyses of the first version. CG and AC-B revised the first version regarding wording and syntax. FM submitted the manuscript. FM and PG addressed the comments and rewrote the manuscript. FM completed the revision responses to the editors and reviewers. DC, CG and AC-B revised the new version of the manuscript. Karen Sherman completed the linguistic review of the manuscript (non-author contributor). FM completed the RnR. FM acts as guarantor.
Funding This study was funded by Mental Health Commission of Canada (no grant number).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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