The Mediating Effects of Job Satisfaction on the Association between Doctor-patient Relationship and OCB among Physicians in China.

backgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate OCB among physicians in China and explore whether their job satisfaction mediates the association between doctor-patient relationship (DPR) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

methodsThis cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 1400 physicians in Shaanxi, China in 2014. The subjects were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling methodology. The self-administered questionnaires included OCB Scale, DDPRQ, and PJSQ. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to estimate the effects of job satisfaction on the association between DPR and OCB.

resultsDPR negatively predicted four dimensions of OCB, including conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue, and altruism. DPR was negatively related to five job satisfaction dimensions, namely work satisfaction (WS), promotion satisfaction (PS), reward satisfaction (RS), supervision satisfaction (SS), and environment satisfaction (ES). WS was positively correlated with conscientiousness and civic virtue; PS and SS were positively related to all four OCB dimensions; RS was positively related with civic virtue and altruism, and ES was positively correlated with conscientiousness and civic virtue. WS and PS partially mediated the association between DPR and conscientiousness; PS and SS partially mediated the relation between DPR and sportsmanship; PS, SS, and ES mediated the association between DPR and civic virtue; and PS, RS and SS partially mediated the relation between DPR and altruism.

conclusionJob satisfaction mediated the association between DPR and OCB among Chinese physicians. The poor DPR possibly reduce physicians' job satisfaction, thereby causing a decline of OCB in hospitals. Therefore, DPR improvement and job satisfaction have a great potential to promote physicians' job performance in China.