Psychological capital and quality of life in Mexican healthcare employees

Purpose: Psychological capital has its background on positive organizational behavior. Over the years, psychology has focused on negative aspects of human behavior. However, the emergence of positive psychology has changed last perspective. Psychological capital or PsyCap is defined as “an individual’s positive psychological state of development and is characterized by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success” (Luthans, Youssef  & Avolio, 2007). In this study, we analyze the positive effects of PsyCap on quality of working life in Mexican health care employees. Methodology: A cross-sectional field survey was conducted in 6 Mexican hospitals. A total of 790 healthcare professionals where included in the sample and provided data on PsyCap related to quality of working life. The six hospitals were selected using a convenience sample which involved the employees’ willingness and consent to take part, as well as the geographical proximity to the researchers. The questionnaires were distributed in the hospitals with a consent form. We evaluated PsyCap using the PCQ- 24 (see Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007). PsyCap used a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). To evaluate quality of working life we utilized a Mexican Scale validated by Mexican healthcare system. Results: The correlation analysis showed evidence of positive and significant relationships between PsyCap on quality of working life in health employees. No significant differences between dimensions of PsyCap (self-efficacy, optimism, resilience and hope). Conclusions Limitations: Further longitudinal research examining the potential effects of psycap on different variables related with performance in healthcare settings. Implications: Our results support that PsyCap is key to improve the quality of life in health employees. In addition positive consequences could be that employees with a good quality of life will provide a better health-care service to patients. Additionally, hospitals’ managers should promote PsyCap as a way to improve employees’ performance rates.Value: To the best of our knowledge, this study the first study in Mexico that shows the importance of the PsyCap in healthcare settings.