Comparative Study on Job Satisfaction among Health Workers in Public and Private Sector Hospitals at South-West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Job satisfaction among health workers become high on the agenda as it has been the driving force on quality of work, productivity, patients’ satisfaction and organizational performance. Employees’ job satisfaction is sector dependent and inconsistent findings were reported in public and private sectors hospitals. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the level of job satisfaction among health workers of private and public sector hospitals in South-West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State. Comparative cross-sectional survey was conducted on 220 healthcare workers who were selected based on stratified sampling method. The stratification is based on fields of profession. Spector’s self-administered Job Satisfaction Scale was used to collect data on job satisfaction. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation; and inferential statistics including independent sample t-test, one way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post-hoc analysis were used. Pearson Correlation was also computed to determine the association between overall job satisfactions with facets of job satisfaction. The result of this study indicated that the mean score of overall job satisfaction in private sector hospital (M = 3.29, SD =.56) was found to be higher than those in public sector hospital (M = 2.94, SD = .41).  The Independent sample t-test also revealed statistically significant difference on the level of overall job satisfaction between health workers at private and public sector hospital,  t (219) = 5.292, p = .000.  Regarding profession, the mean score of overall job satisfaction of Physicians was found to be 3.35 with SD of .54; Health officers (M= 3.48, SD= .63); Nurses (M=2.94, SD= .41); Midwifes (M=3.07, SD=.36); Lab technicians (M=2.70, SD=.09); Anesthesia expert (M=3.02, SD=.53); and others (M= 3.02, SD= .48). ANOVA further revealed the statistically significant differences on job satisfaction across fields of profession F (6, 214) = 7.430, p = .001. Moreover,the post-hoc analysis using Bonferroni showed  Health officers are significantly more satisfied than all the other fields of profession except for the Physicians and Lab Technicians. Table 20 also indicates high level of dissatisfaction between Anesthesia experts and some fields of profession as indicated by the large mean difference between Anesthesia experts and Health Officers (mean difference was -.77429); and Anesthesia experts and Physicians (mean difference was -.65379). High level of dissatisfaction between Nurse and some fields of professions was also obtained by large mean difference between Nurses and Health Officers (mean difference was -.53304); and Nurses and Physicians (mean difference was -.41253). Multiple regression analysis revealed a statistically significant moderate positive relationship between overall job satisfaction and nine facets of job satisfaction (p <.05), which indicates that increases in dimension of satisfaction correspond to increases in the overall job satisfaction. Conclusion: The level of job satisfaction among health workers in public and private sector at South-West Shoa Zone was moderate in general though private health workers had a better job satisfaction. The study findings could provide decision makers with valuable insights on the various components of job satisfaction for future intervention aimed at enhancing job satisfaction of health workers.

Key words: Job satisfaction, Health workers, Public and Private Sector Hospitals