Psychological entitlement and willingness to work in rural areas: the moderating role of organizational identification and professional identification.

backgroundIn many rural areas, medical talent shortages in healthcare present significant challenges. While developing countries and organizations invest in enhancing the education and training of medical students, they often struggle to retain them in rural areas. Traditional efforts to address this issue, such as scholarships, loan repayment programs, and increased funding, have yet to see much success in sustainably attracting professionals to rural areas. Few studies have explored the internal psychological factors influencing medical students' willingness to work in rural areas. This study aims to address this gap by examining how psychological entitlement impacts the willingness to work in rural areas and the moderating roles of organizational and professional identification.

methodsThis study investigated 406 participants using the stratified cluster sampling method at the universities undertaking oriented medical students (OMS) programs. The data collection instruments were the willingness to work in rural areas, psychological entitlement, organizational identification, and professional identification questionnaires. We conducted descriptive analyses, hierarchical regression analyses, and simple slope analysis using SPSS 26.0.

resultsThe findings revealed that psychological entitlement was negatively related to the willingness to work in rural areas (β < 0.00, p < .01). Organizational identification positively moderated the relationship between psychological entitlement and willingness to work in rural areas (β > 0.00, p < .01), such that this negative relationship was buffered when organizational identification was higher than lower. Whether professional identification was high or low, when organizational identification was high, the negative impact of psychological entitlement on willingness to work in rural areas was significantly buffered. DISCUSSION: The study offers valuable insights indicating that psychological entitlement negatively predicted OMS' willingness to work in rural areas. Importantly, it identifies that organization identification rather than professional identification was the critical factor that mitigates this negative impact. These findings highlight that considering psychological entitlement and organization identification could inspire solving talent shortage problems in rural areas for organizations and policymakers. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.