The object of your affection: how commitment, leadership and justice influence workplace behaviours in health care

This paper describes the development of a coherent framework that develops nursing knowledge and guides research in workplace behaviours, work performance, and the factors that influence behaviours and performance.

Work performance is dependent upon behaviours that are related to one's commitment towards their workplace and leadership interactions. The influence of these concepts on work outcomes has been established in disparate studies, but their precedence in terms of influencing workers' behaviours, is not well understood.

A scientific realism approach is applied, where theory and current research in the field of organisational behaviour and work motivation are drawn upon to identify validated constructs and explain their relationships.

An augmented framework is produced, incorporating concepts of relevance to work motivation and work attitudes. Propositions, predicated on research evidence, are offered. Conclusions A novel comprehensive framework is developed, extending the range of behaviours important to workers and the organisation.

Focusing on targets for which nurses are affectively committed can prove useful to managers. The developed framework can be informative to managers by increasing awareness of the relationships between concepts, such that they are mindful of these constructs while interacting with staff.