Shiftwork, mental health and performance among Indian nurses: the role of social support

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of mental health on the job performance among nurses, how shiftwork affects the impact and how social support alters it. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a questionnaire survey from 683 Indian nurses working in multiple hospitals in two major cities in Northern India. Descriptive statistics, correlations and hierarchical regressions were employed to investigate the links between job stress, emotional exhaustion and job performance along with the simultaneous moderating effects of shiftwork and social support on this relationship. Findings Both job stress and emotional exhaustion were negatively related to job performance. However, three-way interaction analysis revealed that social support moderated the above relationships differently between shift workers and day workers. Social support significantly altered the pattern of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables among day workers but had no impact in mitigating the relationship among shift workers. Research limitations/implications The findings endorsed the usefulness of the stress theory, burnout theory, the conservation of resources model and the social support resource theory in modeling the phenomenon and explaining the behavior of day workers but not that of shift workers. Practical implications It paved the way for evidence-based practices in health-care management. Originality/value This study extends theoretical predictions to India and demonstrates their global portability. It focuses on shiftwork and social support as simultaneous moderators, and through a unique three-way analysis, documents complex interaction patterns that have hitherto been unrecorded. It also brings scholarly attention to the nursing population in India whose organizational behavior is poorly documented in the empirical literature.