The Moderation of Perceived Comfort and Relations with Patients in the Relationship between Secure Workplace Attachment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Elderly Facilities Staff

Abstract

This study focuses on caregivers who work in residential facilities (RFs) for the elderly, and specifically on their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in relation to their interaction respectively with the overall context (workplace attachment dimension), the spatial-physical environment (perceived environmental comfort), and the social environment (relationship with patients). A sample of health care workers (medical or health care specialists, nurses, and office employees, n = 129) compiled a self-report paper-pencil questionnaire, which included scales measuring the study variables. The research hypotheses included secure workplace attachment style as independent variable, OCBs as the dependent variable, and perceived comfort and relations with patients as moderators. Results showed that both secure workplace attachment and perceived comfort promote OCBs, but the latter counts especially as a compensation of an insecure workplace attachment. As expected, difficult relationships with patients hinder the relationship between secure workplace attachment style and OCBs. In sum, our study highlights the importance of the joint consideration of the psychological, social, and environmental dimensions for fostering positive behaviors in caregivers employed in elderly care settings.

Promoting the work engagement of the health worker: The role of secure workplace attachment, perceived spatial-physical comfort, and relationship with patients

“…This could be due to the fact that individuals are supposed to internalize meaningful places which will become an integral part of their identity (Scrima et al, 2021). Consistently, our hypothesized positive relationship between secure workplace attachment and work engagement (H1) is confirmed, also in line with previous research based on the classic attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), showing that a secure attachment style promotes work performance (Kale, 2020;Ronen & Zuroff, 2017;Vîrgă et al, 2019), extra-role behavior (e.g., organizational citizenship behavior: Little et al, 2011;Nonnis et al, 2022), job satisfaction (Loi et al, 2014;Rioux & Pignault, 2013;Scrima et al, 2019), and protection from burnout symptoms (Pšeničny & Perat, 2020;Scrima et al, 2021), stress (Johnstone & Feeney, 2015) and workaholism (Tziner & Tanami, 2013). Employees who integrate into their identity that IWMs, typical of a secure workplace attachment, will thus experience organizational problems as their ones and will be personally committed to improving the quality of their work.…”

“…Thus, satisfying past relationships with places should allow the individual to internalize IWMs characterized by intentions, strategies, and beliefs that can influence the perception of comfort. A recent study found, in fact, a significant positive correlation between secure workplace attachment style and perceived comfort in the staff of elderly facilities (Nonnis et al, 2022). In the light of that, it is expected that: H2: Secure workplace attachment style is positively related to Perceived comfort.…”

“…Some recent studies have demonstrated the protective or motivational role of secure workplace attachment in some organizational variables. For example, secure workplace attachment reduces exhaustion (Scrima et al, 2021) and increases organizational citizenship behaviors (Nonnis et al, 2022;Bruny et al, in press). To date, there are no studies that investigated the relationship between secure workplace attachment and work engagement.…”

The reverse buffering effect of workplace attachment style on the relationship between workplace bullying and work engagement

“…Employees with insecure workplace attachment styles (i.e., avoidant and preoccupied) have been shown to be more exhausted than others (Scrima et al, 2021). Secure workplace attachment was also found to promote organizational citizenship behaviors in health workers (Nonnis et al, 2022).…”

Beyond the global attachment model: domain- and relationship-specific attachment models at work and their functions

“…This association is corroborated by a positive correlation between organizational citizenship performance and organizational climate ( Bahrami et al, 2016 ; Berberoglu, 2018 ). Furthermore, workplace attachment is also connected to helping behavior toward colleagues ( Le Roy and Rioux, 2012 ), civic virtue and altruism ( Nonnis et al, 2022 ).…”