Perceived organisational support and work engagement among health sector workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multicentre, time-lagged, cross-sectional study among clinical hospital staff in Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: Workplace engagement is associated with several significant positive organisational outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of workplace engagement, particularly for front-line healthcare workers. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the impact of personal and job resources in a workplace that help in resource conservation for work engagement. In view of the high burnout rates reported among health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to investigate the impact of perceived organisational support (POS) on work engagement through the mediating effect of well-being and the moderating role of employees' resilience.

Design: Time-lagged, cross-sectional, split questionnaire-based survey study.

Setting: Data were gathered from 68 hospitals in Pakistan, of which 45 were public and 23 were private hospitals.

Participants and analysis: Simple random sampling techniques were used and data were collected from 345 healthcare professionals (ie, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals) using split questionnaires, in two waves with a 3-week interval, with a response rate of 80%. For analysis of data, the study used the PROCESS macro by Hayes.

Results: Engagement at work was positively correlated with POS, well-being and resilience. POS significantly predicted work engagement through well-being (β=0.06, SE=0.02, 95% bias-corrected CI 0.021, 0.10). Further analysis of the strong effect of resilience on subjective well-being shows the significant value of the mediated moderation index (β=0.06, SE=0.02, 95% bias-corrected CI 0.03, 0.11).

Conclusion: The findings suggest that well-being may be an important pathway through which healthcare workers' POS may influence work engagement, particularly when their resilience capability is high. To maintain engagement at the workplace, hospital administrators should consider strengthening organisational and individual resources that build a supportive environment to meet the demands of challenging times.

Keywords: COVID-19; Change management; Human resource management; Quality in health care.