The relationship between moral intelligence and organizational commitment of nurses

Background Organizational commitment is one of the most important elements in improving the quality of services provided by individuals and is more important in the nursing profession. Moral intelligence as the basis of ethics plays an important role related to the quality of provided care and also achieving to the community health goals. Research objectives This study was performed with aim to determine the relationship between nurse’s moral intelligence and their organizational commitment. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 176 nurses working in Arak, Iran were entered to the study by two-stage quota sampling. All of the hospitals were governmental. Data were collected by questionnaire that included three parts: demographic, Lennick and Kiel moral intelligence questionnaire, and Allen and Meyer organizational commitment questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and Fisher’s exact test using SPSS17. Result There was positive correlation between moral intelligence and organizational commitment of nurses (P < 0.001, r = 0.33). Among 120 cases (86% of total) with high organizational commitment, 90 (84.2% of them) had well to high moral intelligence. Conclusion According to the positive correlation between nurses’ moral intelligence and organizational commitment, we can propose that trying to promote nurses’ moral intelligence will lead to increase the nurses’ organizational commitment and this will improve the quality of care.