Team-medical staff incongruence in patient orientation and medical service quality: A moderated mediation model

This study draws on conservation of resources theory to propose a moderated mediation model in which team–medical staff incongruence in patient orientation affects medical service quality through emotional exhaustion. In addition, we identify patient’s identification with medical staff as a key first-stage moderator in shaping the mediation process. Based on survey data from 213 medical staff on 37 medical teams at two hospitals in China, our findings revealed that team–medical staff incongruence in patient orientation led to high emotional exhaustion of medical staffs. Further, when the patient orientation of the medical staffs was higher than that of the team, medical staffs perceived higher emotional exhaustion, and the effect of the team–medical staff incongruence in patient orientation on medical service quality was mediated by the emotional exhaustion of medical staffs. Finally, our results found that patient’s identification with medical staff moderates the indirectly relationship between team–medical staff incongruence in patient orientation and medical service quality via emotional exhaustion. Our findings enrich the academic understanding of the team–medical staff incongruence in patient orientation and provide practical suggestions for hospital management.