The mediating role of moral identity in the relationship between organizational culture and emotional commitment among healthcare workers

Organizational structures and organizational culture in the healthcare sector directly affect employee emotional commitment levels, as well as patient satisfaction and service quality. Furthermore, moral identity shapes organizational processes by determining how individuals reflect their ethical values in organizational life. Against this background, this study aims to examine the effect of organizational culture on the emotional commitment levels of healthcare workers and to reveal the potential mediating role of moral identity in this effect. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional design on healthcare workers employed at a 700-bed teaching and research hospital in the Black Sea Region. Data were collected through questionnaires from 489 healthcare workers using primarily simple random sampling, supplemented by snowball sampling to reach employees working in intensive care and infectious disease units. Evaluation of the obtained data revealed a positive and significant relationship between organizational culture and emotional commitment. Moral identity was also observed to exhibit a statistically strong relationship with both variables. Furthermore, it was found that moral identity plays a partial mediating role in the effect of organizational culture on emotional commitment. Ultimately, the findings emphasize the critical role of organizational culture in creating emotional commitment among healthcare workers. Moral identity emerges as a factor that reinforces this effect and shows that employees who exhibit attitudes consistent with the ethical climate of the institution develop greater commitment.