Professionalism and organizational citizenship behavior: An empirical examination among Israeli nurses

Two alternative models were proposed to test whether the relationship between dimensions of professionalism (profession as referent, sense of calling, autonomy) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) was direct or mediated by variables representing justice perceptions (distributive justice, interactional justice, and formal procedures). Respondents were 1,035 registered nurses in four public hospitals in northern Israel. Supervisors in each medical unit at the hospitals provided the data on OCB for the employees. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the data strongly supported the mediated model, namely, the relationship between professionalism and OCB was mediated by variables representing justice in the workplace. The mediated effect was stronger for Jewish nurses than for non-Jewish nurses and for nurses with an academic education in comparison to nurses with a non-academic education. Several implications are drawn for the continuing examination of OCB.