An Exploratory Study of the Relationship of Workforce Compensation and Job Performance in the Federal Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria

Abstract

In this study, attempt was made to analyze the basis of the low motivation of the health workers in the Federal Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria, with a view to prescribing solutions to the nation wide problem of the Nigerian’s attitude to work. The investigating concentrated on  how health workers compensation affects job performance in the Federal teaching Hospitals in Nigeria. The study covered the top fourteen Federal teaching Hospitals in Nigeria. The study was based on equity theory of J.S. Adams, which concentrates on people’s perception of the fairness of their work outcomes relative to, or in proportion to, their work inputs. A sample of 560 health workers was chosen purposively. The hypothesis was tested using linear regression. The result shows that with a constant value of 0.921, compensation has a positive effect (Coefficient of C = 0.921) on job performance and significant as t = 25.366. This suggests that fair and adequate compensation significantly affects job performance in the Federal Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that to get its health workforce improve work attitude, hospitals management board needs to coordinate its workforce compensation plans with the job performance, because health workers often compare their performance and rewards with those of their fellow workers often and ask themselves whether they are being fair treated. For health workers rewards to have impact on their motivation, they must value these rewards, and also that the compensations are worth the effort.

Keywords: Fair and adequate compensation, Health Personnel Management; Job performance, Federal teaching Hospital, Income topping-up strategies Predatory behavior, Moonlighting in private, Public-to-Private Brain-Drain.