Associations between perceived overqualification, organisational commitment and work passion of nurses: A multicentre cross-sectional study

Aim: To investigate the associations between perceived overqualification, organisational commitment and work passion of nurses. Background: Few studies have considered the effects of perceived overqualification and organisational commitment on work passion of nurses, especially in developing countries. Methods: This is a multicentre cross-sectional study. A total of 4511 nurses from eight tertiary hospitals were recruited. The Scale of Perceived OverQalification (SPOQ), the Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS) and the Work Passion Scale (WPS) were used to collect the data. Hierarchical multiple regression were employed. Results: Perceived overqualification and organisational commitment were the main predictors for both harmonious and obsessive passions (each p <.001). The unique effect of organisational commitment (beta(harmonious) =.608, beta(obsessive) =.556) on work passion were six to eight times larger than these of perceived overqualification (beta(harmonious) = -.079, beta(obsessive) =.085). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that high perceived overqualification clearly reduces nurses' harmonious passion and increases their obsessive passion, whereas high organisational commitment significantly promotes nurses' harmonious and obsessive passions. Implications for nursing management: Nurse managers should distinguish the different effects of perceived overqualification and organisational commitment on work passion. Effective intervention should be developed to release nurses' potential abilities and improve their organisational commitment and work passion.