Background: Employee job satisfaction has been established to be one of the important factors that work towards addressing the subject matter of productivity in organizations. Healthcare professionals deserve some level of basic psychological need satisfaction in the area of job autonomy. Reasons that lead to employees achieving job autonomy and job satisfaction have been researched by industrial and organizational psychologists but very few of such studies have directed their attention towards the role psychological capital can play. Therefore, this study sought to find out how much of an impact positive psychology can make on the job autonomy of healthcare employees leading to the fulfillment of job satisfaction. Methods: Data were collected from 385 healthcare professionals from the public sector. A structural equation model was performed to analyze the relationship that exists between the constructs of psychological capital and job autonomy leading to job satisfaction on the part of the employees. Results: Results showed both a direct and indirect positive relationship between hope and job satisfaction and indirect through job autonomy. Apart from self-efficacy, that had a very low positive relationship, optimism largely influenced job autonomy of healthcare professionals. Results also showed that psychological capital positively related to job autonomy while job autonomy minimally influenced job satisfaction. Conclusions: It is concluded from this study that healthcare professionals deserve some level of basic psychological need satisfaction in the area of job autonomy and that can stimulate positive work ethic.
Keywords: healthcare professionals; job autonomy; job satisfaction; psychological capital.