Exploring the antecedents of organizational identification: the role of job dimensions, individual characteristics and job involvement

AIM: This study aims to identify the antecedents of organizational identification such as job involvement and job dimensions in a health care setting. BACKGROUND: Organizational identification is an important work attitude that affects nurses' performance and job satisfaction. Hence, exploring antecedents of organizational identification in a health care setting is vital in understanding the role of organizational identification in nurse- and patient-related outcomes. METHOD: A research model, which incorporates job design, individual characteristics, job involvement and organizational identification, was developed and tested. The research was conducted via a survey in a hospital setting in Turkey (n = 148). RESULTS: The results revealed that job involvement, which is the degree of importance of one's job to one's self-image, is related to organizational identification. Among job dimensions, task identity and autonomy explained a significant proportion of variance in job involvement. CONCLUSION: Although job dimensions are not directly related to organizational identification, they have effects on job involvement, which is also an important construct. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The results suggest that nurses' jobs should be designed with higher levels of task autonomy and task identity to increase their job involvement and in turn their organizational identification.