The Influence of Compassion Fatigue on Job Performance and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Person–Job Fit

• Published in: Journal of nursing scholarship Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 500 - 510
• Main Author: Chu, Li‐Chuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2021
• Subjects: Behavior; Burnout; Citizenship; Compassion; Compassion fatigue; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Employees; Employment; Fatigue; Hospitals; Hypotheses; Job performance; Job requirements; Job satisfaction; Literature reviews; Nurses; Nursing; Nursing care; organizational citizenship behavior; Organizational citizenship behaviour; Patient safety; person–job fit; Questionnaires; Social exchange theory; Sympathy; job performance; organizational citizenship behavior; Compassion fatigue; person-job fit
• ISSN: 1527-6546; 1547-5069
• DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12644

Purpose This study investigated the influence of compassion fatigue on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, this study analyzed whether person–job fit effectively moderates the negative impacts of compassion fatigue. Design A longitudinal, two‐stage questionnaire was used to collect data. Methods This study adopted a convenience sampling whose participants consisted of 263 nursing staff from medical centers, regional hospitals, district hospitals, and clinics in Taiwan. Descriptive, correlational, and hierarchical regression analyses were used to investigate the relationships between variables. Findings The study results indicated that compassion fatigue exerts a significant negative influence on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior, whereas person–job fit effectively moderates the negative relationships between compassion fatigue and job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Conclusions Hospital administrations could pay more attention to the negative influence of compassion fatigue on the job performance and organizational citizenship behavior of nursing staff. Enhancing person–job fit can mitigate the negative impacts of compassion fatigue. Clinical Relevance Apart from seeking reasons for compassion fatigue and proposing effective solutions, hospitals also could adopt appropriate practices to constantly monitor and manage the person–job fit of nursing staff, thereby assisting the nursing staff in adapting to current nursing job requirements.