The match between motivation and performance management of health sector workers in Mali

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Human resources for health (HRH) play a central role in improving accessibility to services and quality of care. Their motivation influences this. In Mali, operational research was conducted to identify the match between motivation and the range and use of performance management activities.

Objectives

To describe the factors motivating and demotivating health workers in Mali and match the motivators with the implementation of performance management.

Methods

First an exploratory qualitative study was conducted: 28 interviews and eight group discussions were held. This was followed by a cross-sectional survey, during which 370 health workers were interviewed. The study population consisted of health workers of eight professional groups. The following issues were investigated:

• motivating and demotivating factors;

• experiences with performance management, including: job descriptions, continuous education, supervision, performance appraisal and career development.

Findings

The study showed that the main motivators of health workers were related to responsibility, training and recognition, next to salary. These can be influenced by performance management (job descriptions, supervisions, continuous education and performance appraisal). Performance management is not optimally implemented in Mali, as job descriptions were not present or were inappropriate; only 13% of interviewees received 4× per year supervision, and training needs were not analysed. Some 48% of the interviewees knew their performance had been appraised in the last two years; the appraisals were perceived as subjective. No other methods were in place to show recognition. The results enabled the research team to propose adaptations or improvements upon existing performance management.

Conclusion

The results showed the importance of adapting or improving upon performance management strategies to influence staff motivation. This can be done by matching performance management activities to motivators identified by operational research.

Related collections

Most cited references 14

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Identifying factors for job motivation of rural health workers in North Viet Nam

Marjolein Dieleman, Pham Viet Cuong, Le Vu Anh … (2003)

Background In Viet Nam, most of the public health staff (84%) currently works in rural areas, where 80% of the people live. To provide good quality health care services, it is important to develop strategies influencing staff motivation for better performance. Method An exploratory qualitative research was carried out among health workers in two provinces in North Viet Nam so as to identify entry points for developing strategies that improve staff performance in rural areas. The study aimed to determine the major motivating factors and it is the first in Viet Nam that looks at health workers' job perception and motivation. Apart from health workers, managers at national and at provincial level were interviewed as well as some community representatives. Results The study showed that motivation is influenced by both financial and non-financial incentives. The main motivating factors for health workers were appreciation by managers, colleagues and the community, a stable job and income and training. The main discouraging factors were related to low salaries and difficult working conditions. Conclusion Activities associated with appreciation such as performance management are currently not optimally implemented, as health workers perceive supervision as control, selection for training as unclear and unequal, and performance appraisal as not useful. The kind of non-financial incentives identified should be taken into consideration when developing HRM strategies. Areas for further studies are identified.

0 comments Cited 137 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Systemic capacity building: a hierarchy of needs.

C. Potter (2004)

'Capacity building' is the objective of many development programmes and a component of most others. However, satisfactory definitions continue to elude us, and it is widely suspected of being too broad a concept to be useful. Too often it becomes merely a euphemism referring to little more than training. This paper argues that it is more important to address systemic capacity building, identifying a pyramid of nine separate but interdependent components. These form a four-tier hierarchy of capacity building needs: (1) structures, systems and roles, (2) staff and facilities, (3) skills, and (4) tools. Emphasizing systemic capacity building would improve diagnosis of sectoral shortcomings in specific locations, improve project/programme design and monitoring, and lead to more effective use of resources. Based on extensive action research in 25 States, experience from India is presented to illustrate how the concept of the capacity building pyramid has been put to practical use.

0 comments Cited 126 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Health sector reform and public sector health worker motivation: a conceptual framework.

Lynne Miller Franco, Sara Bennett, Ruth Kanfer (2002)

Motivation in the work context can be defined as an individual's degree of willingness to exert and maintain an effort towards organizational goals. Health sector performance is critically dependent on worker motivation, with service quality, efficiency, and equity, all directly mediated by workers' willingness to apply themselves to their tasks. Resource availability and worker competence are essential but not sufficient to ensure desired worker performance. While financial incentives may be important determinants of worker motivation, they alone cannot and have not resolved all worker motivation problems. Worker motivation is a complex process and crosses many disciplinary boundaries, including economics, psychology, organizational development, human resource management, and sociology. This paper discusses the many layers of influences upon health worker motivation: the internal individual-level determinants, determinants that operate at organizational (work context) level, and determinants stemming from interactions with the broader societal culture. Worker motivation will be affected by health sector reforms which potentially affect organizational culture, reporting structures, human resource management, channels of accountability, types of interactions with clients and communities, etc. The conceptual model described in this paper clarifies ways in which worker motivation is influenced and how health sector reform can positively affect worker motivation. Among others, health sector policy makers can better facilitate goal congruence (between workers and the organizations they work for) and improved worker motivation by considering the following in their design and implementation of health sector reforms: addressing multiple channels for worker motivation, recognizing the importance of communication and leadership for reforms, identifying organizational and cultural values that might facilitate or impede implementation of reforms, and understanding that reforms may have differential impacts on various cadres of health workers.

0 comments Cited 124 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Hum Resour Health

Title: Human Resources for Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1478-4491

Publication date Collection: 2006

Publication date (Electronic): 9 February 2006

Volume: 4

Page: 2

Affiliations

[1 ]KIT Development, Policy and Practice, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

[2 ]Health advisor, UNICEF Mali, Bamako, Mali

[3 ]International Health Research Group, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK

Article

Publisher ID: 1478-4491-4-2

DOI: 10.1186/1478-4491-4-2

PMC ID: 1402315

PubMed ID: 16469107

SO-VID: 100ed79b-a9fc-4db4-b157-fa381217de2a

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The match between motivation and performance management of health sector workers in Mali

Read this article at

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion

Related collections

Pan African Medical Journal

Most cited references 14

Identifying factors for job motivation of rural health workers in North Viet Nam

Systemic capacity building: a hierarchy of needs.

Health sector reform and public sector health worker motivation: a conceptual framework.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 273

Cited by 55

Most referenced authors 69