Relationship between Psychological Capital and Job Engagement: A Study on Public Healthcare Providers

The role of healthcare providers is considered as one of the pillars of healthcare systems, although the healthcare profession is demanding, challenging and concentrated on patient care and safety. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between healthcare providers' psychological capital (PsyCap) and Job engagement. PsyCap is a psychological personal resource consisting of four constructs (hope, self-efficacy, resilience, optimism) that is used for personal development and growth processes (Luthans & Youssef, 2004) and can be developed and assessed (Luthans et al., 2007). Job engagement refers to a positive, fulfilling, and job-related personal resource demonstrated by vigor, dedication and absorption (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2010). Research evidence suggests that both of these personal resources may benefit healthcare providers both individually and organizationally. The correlational design with a total sample of 300 healthcare providers was utilized. The PsyCap Questionnaire (PCQ24) and the Utrech Job Engagement Scale (UWES 17) were used to examine study variables. The result of the correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between all the components of PsyCap (hope, self-efficacy, resilience & optimism) and Job engagement (vigor, dedication & absorption). This is concluded that public healthcare providers' job engagement levels will vary with their PsyCap in a positive direction. For a healthcare organisation to accomplish healthcare service level goals, it is crucial to measure the PsyCap and work engagement of healthcare providers and design an intervention for enhancing their individual psychological and job resources.