Effect of Saudi nurses’ perceived work-life quality on work engagement and organizational commitment

Abstract

The nurse faculty at the University of Ha’il in Saudi Arabia is responsible for academic and in-service education for nursing discipline and for staff and organizational research. They are considered critical players in assuring quality educational experiences that prepare the nursing workforce for a diverse, ever-changing health care environment. Nowadays, Ha’il University is seeking accreditation, which includes evidence that the working environment is appropriate for both students and the teaching staff. Also, managements in public higher education institutions recently have utilized quality of work-life as a tool for attracting and retaining talented academic staff. Because with having quality of work-life commitment and loyalty of the employees created to its potential. Thus the aim of this study is to test the mediating effect of quality of work-life on the relationship between work engagement and organizational commitment among academic nursing staff at Ha’il University. Measures were the quality of the work-life scale, the short form of the Utrecht work engagement scale, and an organizational commitment questionnaire. The results indicated that the academic nursing staff had satisfactory levels of work-life quality (3.56±0.62) and high work engagement (4.76±1.12) and a positive organizational commitment result (3.09±0.22). A correlation was found between quality of work-life and organizational commitment. However, there was neither a significant relationship between quality of work-life and work engagement nor was there between work engagement and organizational commitment. The conclusion was therefore that quality of work-life does not mediate the work engagement and organizational commitment relationship.