Motivating nurses' organizational citizenship behaviors by customer-oriented perception for evidence-based practice.

BACKGROUND: There is a gap in the literature about the influence of customer-oriented perception on nursing personnel's organizational citizenship behaviors. Organizational citizenship behaviors are the type of contextual behaviors that are difficult to observe and measure as such behaviors are usually generated in quite subtle and unpredictable ways. AIMS: This study tested the hypothesis: Customer-oriented perception is associated with increased organizational citizenship behaviors for nurses. If nursing personnel's customer-oriented perception can increase their willingness to display organizational citizenship behaviors, it may facilitate hospital operation and enhance organizational effectiveness.
METHODS: A cross-sectional design using a questionnaire survey of nurses in 10 medical centers was used. Five hundred copies of the questionnaire were distributed, and 232 effective copies were retrieved, with a valid response rate of 46.4%. Structural equation modeling was performed in SPSS 11.0 and Amos 7.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) statistical software packages.
RESULTS: The main finding was that favorable customer-oriented perception is associated with increased organizational citizenship behaviors for nurses. IMPLICATIONS: Extensive training and customer-oriented performance evaluation are proposed in the hope of creating customer-oriented perception among nursing personnel and subsequently inspiring the display of organizational citizenship behaviors. ©2010 Sigma Theta Tau International.