Impacts of effort recognition on nurses’ organizational commitment and turnover intention

Purpose Organizational commitment could influence nurses’ turnover intention, but we know little about how effort recognition may enhance all three aspects of nurses’ organizational commitment and consequently reduce their turnover intention. This study adopts the self-affirmation theory to examine how the number of effort recognitions received by a nurse may impact the normative, continuance and affective aspects of their organizational commitment and their turnover intention. Design/methodology/approach We collected two-wave data from the survey responses of 481 nurses in a large medical center in Taiwan between June and August, 2017 and between January and February, 2018 as well as counting the number of times their efforts were recognized as excellent by using patient/family performance appraisal forms in 2016. Bivariate correlation was used to test the hypotheses. Findings We found that effort recognition is positively associated with nurses’ normative organizational commitment but not with their continuance or affective commitment. The three aspects of organizational commitment are negatively associated with turnover intention. Practical implications Nurse managers who hope to reduce nurses’ turnover intention could consider adequately recognizing nurses’ outstanding performance. Originality/value The present study is the first to employ the self-affirmation theory to examine the impact of effort recognition on the three aspects of organizational commitment and turnover intention.