Effect of Motivation on Health Workers’ Job Performance at a Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Aim: To determine the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on health workers’ performance among clinical health personnel.

Study Design: An exploratory cross-sectional design was applied.

Place and Duration of Study: Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana in June 2016.

Methodology: Quantitative methods were employed and 324 clinical health personnel responded to a self-administered structured questionnaire. Stata version 13 was used for the statistical analysis. An ANOVA test was conducted to compare the effect of motivation on job performance. Simple and multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the overall effect of the independent variables on the outcome variable. The level of significance was a probability less than 5% (P<0.05).

Results: The study identified achievement and personal satisfaction, and incentive packages as intrinsic motivation factors that could influence the performance of health workers. All the extrinsic motivation factors (availability of equipment, job security, good interpersonal relationships with co-workers, recognition and promotion, improved salary, and workload or feeling burned out and emotionally drained after work) could significantly affect job performance. The overall multiple regression model showed that both intrinsic (F (4, 319) = 8.66, P=.001) and extrinsic (F (6, 317) = 23.97, P=.001) motivation factors were significantly associated with job performance.

Conclusion: Generally, the study concludes that providing an enabling environment and motivation could have a positive effect on health workers’ job performance.