Latent profiles of ethical climate and nurses’ service behavior

Background Hospital ethical climate has important implications for clinical nurses’ service behavior; however, the relationships are complicated by the fact that five types of ethical climate (caring, law and code, rules, instrumental, and independence) can be combined differently according to their level and shape differences. Recent developments in person-centered methods (e.g., latent profile analysis (LPA)) have helped to address these complexities. Aim From a person-centered perspective, this study explored the distinct profiles of hospital ethical climate and then examined the relationships of the profiles with clinical nurses’ service behavior (both in-role and extra-role service behavior). Research design A quantitative study was conducted using cluster random sampling. Latent profile analysis and binary coded hexadecimal (BCH) analysis were conducted using Mplus 8.2. Participants and research context A total of 871 clinical nurses in China were surveyed using the Ethical Climate Scale and Nurses’ Service Behavior Questionnaire. Ethical considerations Ethical approval was obtained from the IRB of the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University (No. KY-2020-090). Results A four-profile hospital ethical climate model provided the best fit for the data. The four different profiles not only varied in level, but also in shape: high normative and low egoism (45.8%), high ethical climate (19.9%), low ethical climate (3.6%), and moderate ethical climate (30.8%). These profiles differentially predicted clinical nurses’ overall, in-role, and extra-role service behaviors. Conclusions The results reveal new insights into the nature of hospital ethical climate and how different clinical nurses in these profiles can be best managed to accomplish different forms of service behavior.