EMPATHY AND COMPETENCY AS PREDICTORS OF NURSES' JOB PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIAN PUBLIC HOSPITALS

Nurses act as customer-contact employees who are responsible for providing round-the-clock service to patients. Their empathy and competency skills have a significant impact on the quality of services provided to patients. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of empathy and competency in determining task performance and contextual performance of public hospital nurses in Malaysia. A survey using self-administered questionnaires was used to collect data from a sample of 354 staff nurses working in Malaysian public hospitals. Hypotheses were tested using the partial least square technique. Findings indicated that empathy has a positive relationship with task performance but not with contextual performance. Competency, however, has a positive relationship with task performance and contextual performance respectively. Empathy and competency are essential elements in predicting both task performance and contextual performance. The findings of this study highlighted the importance of empathy and competency in improving job performance among nurses in Malaysian public hospitals.