The Relationship among Communication Competence, Organizational Commitment and Job Stress in Dental Hygienists

Objectives: This study was conducted to understand the relationship between organizational commitments, job stress and communication competence in clinical dental hygienists and to provide measures to improve organizational effectiveness of dental clinics. Methods/Analysis: Organizational commitment, job stress and communication competence were investigated by using a self-reported questionnaire in 150 dental hygienists. PASW 18.0 (IBM Co, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for one-way ANOVA, independent t-test and Pearson correlation analysis. Findings: Organizational commitment and communication competence were higher in the twenties than in the thirties and the forties. Job stress was higher in the forties than in the twenties. Organizational commitment was the highest in the group with work experience under three years, and job stress was the highest in the group with work experience over seven years. A correlation between organizational commitment and communication competence was positive and a correlation between communication competence and role ambiguity which is one of sub-factors of job stress was negative. Applications/Improvements: A significant positive correlation was identified between organizational commitment and communication competence. Thus, education courses are required to improve communication competence of dental hygienists. In addition, further studies are needed to investigate a reason of the effect of work experience and age on communication competence and job stress.