Assessing the effects of pharmacists’ perceived organizational support, organizational commitment and turnover intention on provision of medication information at community pharmacies in Lithuania: a structural equation modeling approach

BACKGROUND As a member of a pharmacy organization, a pharmacist is not only bound to fulfill his/her professional obligations but is also affected by different personal and organizational factors that may influence his/her behavior and, consequently, the quality of the services he/she provides to patients. The main purpose of the research was to test a hypothesized model of the relationships among several organizational variables, and to investigate whether any of these variables affects the service of provision of medication information at community pharmacies. METHODS During the survey, pharmacists working at community pharmacies in Lithuania were asked to express their opinions on the community pharmacies at which they worked and to reflect on their actions when providing information on medicines to their patients. The statistical data were analyzed by applying a structural equation modeling technique to test the hypothesized model of the relationships among the variables of Perceived Organizational Support, Organizational Commitment, Turnover Intention, and Provision of Medication Information. RESULTS The final model revealed that Organizational Commitment had a positive direct effect on Provision of Medication Information (standardized estimate = 0.27) and a negative direct effect (standardized estimate = -0.66) on Turnover Intention. Organizational Commitment mediated the indirect effects of Perceived Organizational Support on Turnover Intention (standardized estimate = -0.48) and on Provision of Medication Information (standardized estimate = 0.20). Pharmacists' Turnover Intention had no significant effect on Provision of Medication Information. CONCLUSIONS Community pharmacies may be viewed as encouraging, to some extent, the service of provision of medication information. Pharmacists who felt higher levels of support from their organizations also expressed, to a certain extent, higher commitment to their organizations by providing more consistent medication information to patients. However, the effect of organizational variables on the variable of Provision of Medication Information appeared to be limited.