Health care organizations are continuously developing and expanding to provide high‐quality health care as their ultimate objective. As an integral part of the health care system, nursing plays an important role in improving the quality of patient care and public health service. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to nursing education and training as well as the quality and quantity of nurses in China, which have a significant impact on China’s health care reform. A shortage of nurses and heavy workloads among practicing nurses are common in China, which may affect the performance of the entire health care system. For example, in China, 46% of nurses work more than 11 hr/day, and 35% of nurses work more than 6 days a week (Meijuan, Ruiwei, & Ying, 2007). The World Health Organization suggests that the standard ratio of the number of nurses to the number of hospital beds should be 1:0.4 (Organization WH, 2006). However, in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, 1 nurse takes care of 15 patients during the day shift and 40 to 50 patients during the night shift (University TAHoHM, 2011). Such a workload may decrease the quality of nursing care, increase patient costs, and prolong the period of hospital stay. Researchers have found that improving job performance can increase quality of nursing care (Lee & Ko, 2010). Therefore, there is an urgent need to determine the performance of nurses in China as well as the factors that affect their performance. Greenslade and Jimmieson (2007) developed a model of job performance based on Bonnan and Motowidlo (1993) model; it defines job performance as work behaviour that can be classified into 2 domains: task performance and contextual performance. Task performance refers to behaviours that directly contribute to the technical core of the organization, including activities that are commonly considered as part of the job. Contextual performance is defined as behaviours that sustain the social environment in which the technical core functions. It comprises intentional behaviours that help the hospital to operate. Greenslade and Jimmieson’s (2007) initiative was introduced to job performance investigations in the nursing profession (Greenslade, 2008). Task performance includes 3 components: social support, information provision, and technical care; contextual performance also includes 3 components: interpersonal support, job‐task support, and organizational support (Greenslade, 2008).