Communication styles, psychological capital and safety behaviors among employees in selected health facilities in Kampala District

Abstract

Communication styles are one of the concerns in work places that affect the safety behaviors of the employees. This study set out to establish the relationship between communication styles with dimensions of expressiveness, preciseness, verbal aggressiveness, questioningness, emotionality, impression manipulativeness, psychological capital and safety behaviors in health facilities. It was guided by a number of objectives which included examining the relationship between communication styles and safety behaviors; to examine the relationship between communication styles and psychological capital; to examine the relationship between psychological capital and safety behaviors; and to examine whether emotional psychological capital mediates the relationship between communication styles and safety behaviors. The study was undertaken at Mengo hospital, Med-Care hospital, Medi-Pal hospital and Malcom hospital using a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to a sample of 259 respondents of the health facilities. The data was entered in a computer and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social scientists (SPSS). Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 were verified using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the fourth hypothesis was tested using tested with model of 4 Hayes’s PROCESS macro (Version 4.1) based on certain conditions that described the data. A number of recommendations were made to build the dimensions of psychological capital amongst employees leading to good safety behaviors at work.