Supervisor Support, Coworker Support and Presenteeism among Healthcare Workers in China: The Mediating Role of Distributive Justice

Abstract

Healthcare workers in China are exposed to extremely high job stress and inequitable work conditions, and the Healthy China 2030 blueprint has made them an important focus of policymakers. To examine the importance of distributive justice in Chinese medical reform, we analyzed data from 1542 healthcare workers employed in 64 primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals in 28 Chinese cities in Western, Central and Eastern China in 2018. Supervisor support, coworker support, distributive justice, and presenteeism were assessed with the supervisor support scale, coworker support scale, distributive justice scale and perceived ability to work scale, respectively. Structural equation modeling was used to examine relationships among variables. The mediating effect of distributive justice on associations between supervisor support, coworker support, and presenteeism was examined with the Sobel test. The results revealed that significant indirect effects between supervisor support and presenteeism and between coworker support and presenteeism were significantly mediated by distributive justice. Better supervisor and coworker support might improve distributive justice among healthcare workers in Chinese hospitals, thereby increasing their performance.