The Correlation Between Perceived Organizational Support and Quality of Work Life in the Operational Staff of Tehran Medical Emergency Center, 2019

Abstract

Background & Aims: Given the importance and role of the organization's human resources, focusing and addressing issues such as the quality of work life that lead to increased employee performance, reduced absenteeism and leave of duty is important. Quality of work life is a set of organizational conditions and is created when the management of the organization is democratic, staff are treated with respect, and a safe work environment is provided. In other words, improving the quality of work life in staff is one of the important factors to ensure the sustainability of the health system. Considering the sensitive and stressful job situation of emergency center staff and the contradictory results of researches conducted on the quality of life of staff, the present study aimed to analyze the relationship between perceived organizational support and quality of work life of the operational staff of Tehran emergency centers. Materials & Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted on the operational staff of Tehran Emergency Center in the second six months of 2019. The sampling method was multi-stage stratified with the proportional allocation and 200 qualified staff from the six emergency centers of Tehran (north, south, east, west, center, Islamshahr) were included in the study. Inclusion criteria were having a diploma and higher degrees and having at least six months of experience as operational staff. Demographic information form, quality of work life questionnaire developed by Walton, and Eisenberg perceived organizational support questionnaire were used for data collection. The researcher returned 24-48 hours after the distribution of the questionnaires and collected the completed questionnaires. Then, the data were analyzed using independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation-coefficient, and Kruskal-Wallis tests in SPSS version 16. Results: The results of the current study revealed that 42.2% and 41.1& of staff considered their income to be insufficient and somewhat sufficient respectively and the dimensions. Besides, the organizational support average was 82.2 ± 0.152 which was at the intermediate level and the average score of organizational support was 28.49 ± 5.06. Finally, there was no significant relationship between the quality of work-life and its dimensions with perceived organizational support. The results of the correlation between these variables and demographic characteristics of staff of emergency center showed a statistically significant relationship between that the quality of work life with education (P=0.013). The average score of staff with diploma was significantly lower than staff with associate degree (P=0.026), bachelor degree (P=0.002), and master degree (P=0.016), and the difference was not significant in other cases. Another variable that had a statistically significant relationship with the quality of work life was employment status (P=0.015). The average score of staff with casual employment was significantly lower than corporate (P=0.041) and formal staff (P=0.006). Moreover, perceived organizational support had no statistically significant relationship with any of the individual and job variables of the staff. The average score of staff with casual employment was significantly lower than those with corporate (P=0.041) and formal employment (P=0.006). Perceived organizational support also had no statistically significant relationship with individual and job variables of the staff. Conclusion: According to the results of the study on the average perceived organizational support and quality of work life, organizational efforts of managers and related officials should be directed towards optimizing the organizational support and quality of work life of this group of staff. It is important to pay attention to these two concepts in the pre-hospital emergency operation staff because it can affect the professional, personal, life, and social aspects of their life. Considering that this study was conducted in Tehran Emergency Center, it is suggested that similar researches be conducted in other medical centers of other cities and on other clinical professions to compare the results.