Competence Development and Collaborative Climate as Antecedents of Job Performance, Job Commitment and Uncertainty: Validation of a Theoretical Model across Four Hospitals

Knowledge is lacking regarding how organizational factors are associated with uncertainty in patient treatment. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate how competence development and collaborative climate relates to job performance and job commitment, and further whether job performance and job commitment relate to uncertainty. Additionally, we examined whether these associations differed between four different hospitals. We applied data from 6445 hospital workers who provided care to patients. Basic statistics and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to test the validity of the theoretical model developed in the study and the hypothesized associations. All hypothesized paths between the latent variables were significant and in accordance with the model across the four hospitals. The current study has implications for practical human resource management and indicates that competence development should be strengthened at the individual level and collaborative climate should be strengthened at the ward level. Strengthening competence development and collaborative climate can increase job performance and job commitment of individual workers and reduce uncertainty during care in hospital settings.