Title: Shift work among nurses in China and India: a comparative test of the unique predictive capacity hypothesis

Authors: Vishwanath V. Baba; Akanksha Bedi; Louise Tourigny

Addresses: DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada ' Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, USA ' University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of shift work on work attitudes and mental health among hospital nurses in both China and India. It differs from other shift work studies in that, in addition to the well-documented shift effects, it focuses on the discrepancy between the shift a nurse works and the shift she prefers. Based on discrepancy theory, we test the hypothesis that the discrepancy between working and preferred shifts will have a unique predictive capacity over and above the effects of shifts. A field survey in Mandarin and Hindi was used to gather data. The results show that while shift work has a significant impact on the attitudes and mental health of nurses in both China and India, the impact of shift work discrepancy has been relatively modest.

Keywords: shift work; comparative study; China; India; unique predictive capacity hypothesis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCM.2025.150336

International Journal of Comparative Management, 2025 Vol.4 No.3, pp.204 - 225

Received: 14 Mar 2024
Accepted: 01 Jul 2025
Published online: 09 Dec 2025 *

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