Research on the Influence of Doctor-Patient Relationship on Physicians’ Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Although the doctor-patient relationship (DPR) is a predictor of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), the relations between DPR and OCB is not well understood. This study was designed to investigate the specific dimensions of OCB among physicians in China and determine the effects of DPR on OCB. The subjects were physicians at five large general hospitals in China, who were selected by random sampling methodology. Then, using empirical study methods, factor analysis and regression analysis for data collecting from 958 samples were made. Finally, we find that OCB consists of four dimensions including civic virtue, sportsmanship, altruism, and conscientiousness. DPR has significant negative impact on the civic virtue, sportsmanship, altruism, and conscientiousness behaviors, respectively. This finding suggests that effective strategies should be applied to promote physicians' OCB by improving DPR, which can enhance their job performances and improve the quality of health care delivery.