Social capital, job security, commitment and job performance of nurses at Mulago Hospital

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between social capital, job security, commitment and job performance among nurses of Mulago hospital in Uganda. The objectives of the study were; to examine the relationship between job security and commitment; to examine the relationship between social capital and commitment; to examine the relationship between commitment and job performance; to determine between job security and social capital which one best predicts commitment and job performance; and to examine the mediating effect of commitment on the relationship between job security and job performance and the relationship between social capital and job performance. I adopted a cross-sectional survey design utilizing a sample of 267 nurses selected using random sampling. Data was collected using a questionnaire. Findings from Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that job security has a significant positive relationship with commitment of nurses (r = .43, p< .01); social capital has a significant positive relationship with commitment of nurses (r = .30, p< .01); and that commitment has a significant positive relationship with job performance of nurses and midwives (r = .36, p < .01). The study revealed that Job security is the best predictor of commitment (b = .27, t = 6.01, p = .000) than social capital and Commitment was found to be the best predictor of performance (b = .40, t = 3.63, p = .000). Furthermore, commitment had full mediation effect on the relationship between job security and job performance (C1 = .07, .20). Therefore It was recommended to management of Mulago hospital to adopt more initiatives that build job security, develop strategies for team building, encourage the introduction of more clubs and association for staff members, introduce more patriotism building events and put in place functional mechanisms to gather and respond to feedback from nurses about issues affecting their commitment and job performance.