An Examination of How Information Flow Affects Job Performance in the Federal Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria

Abstract

The study was prompted by the concern of the health sector personnel to see personnel management improved through a systematic application of sound management principles and techniques in Nigeria. The specific objective of the study was to examine how information flow affects job performance in the federal teaching hospitals in Nigeria. The study covered the fourteen key federal teaching hospitals in Nigeria. The study was based on Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy. A sample of 560 health workers was purposively chosen. The hypothesis was tested using multiple linear regressions. The result shows that with a constant value of 0.823, information flow have positive effects (coefficient of IF = 0.407 and coefficient of N1 = 0.355) on job performance and the effect is significant. This indicates that one of the most important needs of health workers in the federal teaching hospitals in Nigeria is information about what is happening around their workplace which helps in cultivating and maintain mutually satisfactory relationship between the health managers and workface. It is the inadequate information flow downwards and upwards in the work system that nursed up the ‘Oyibo work” attitude among the health workers in the federal teaching hospitals in Nigeria. It is recommended that the dissemination of information about the hospital priorities, goals, objectives and strategies to health staff at all levels is necessary as it affects work attitudes positively in the federal teaching hospitals in Nigeria

Keywords Information flow, Bad attitude to work, Extrinsic and intrinsic factors, Job performance, Hierarchy of Needs, Federal teaching hospitals, Misdistribution of Personnel