Function of Psychological Capital as a Mediator Affecting Psychological Outcomes and Work Performance Among Public Health Officer in Southern Border Provinces

Abstract

The two main objectives of this research were to 1) examine the level of analysis of variables  collected on individuals in their groups 2) test the function of psychological capital (PsyCap) as a mediator affecting psychological and work  performance outcomes. The samples were public health officer in southern border provinces; consisted of 531 individuals from 120 work-groups.  Data collection was from 15 questionnaires — verified for content validity by professional experts, with reliability of 0.70 - 0.93. CFA and MCFA methods were used for construct validity.  The results showed that influence tactics of leader and group cohesion were revealed as group-level variables, appropriate for the Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM). According to multilevel model, hardiness personality, sense of community, community support, family support, sense of safety and security had direct effect on PsyCap and indirect effect on some of psychological and work performance outcomes including posttraumatic growth, burnout and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) which were mediated by PsyCap. But media exposure variable did not show significant effect of any dependent factors. Spiritual beliefs and practices had direct effect on OCB but PsyCap did not play a mediator role. Only group cohesion had cross- direct effect on burnout but influence tactics of leader did not show the significant cross-effect of any individual-level variables. Thus PsyCap played both fully and partially mediators’ roles. The importance of this research finding supported the concept of multilevel, homologous multilevel theoretical model which is similar relationships between parallel constructs across levels of analysis.

Keywords: Psychological Capital,  Mediator,   Psychological outcomes,  Work Performance,

Southern Border  Provinces