Highlights
- In the priority of employees' motivational factors the interesting, work discipline, respectful orders and job security are the first while salary and benefits are in the middle range of employees. There is also a significant relationship between motivational factors and mutual understanding.
Introduction
Provision of quality services is an important policy of health service organizations
(1). Statistics suggest that although the quality of most products has improved in recent decades, the quality index of medical services remains unchanged
(2). Motivation is a significant influential factor in the quality of human resource services
(3, 4), as well as a determinant of the performance improvement of employees. The current level of individual motivation could act as a regulatory factor to optimize employees’ performance
(5-7). Motivation and its application are of great importance in health services
(8).
In various studies, motivation has been evaluated along with satisfaction and motivation to achieve goals, which could arise from internal or external factors
(9). Hospitals are a primary health service organization with a particular structure and complexity, and manpower is considered the main source of service provision in hospitals. Therefore, recognizing and analyzing the motivational factors of hospital employees are paramount
(10).
Several studies confirm the relationship between job motivation, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. For instance, Franco et al. consider the most important motivational factors to be effectiveness, honesty in management, and job security
(11). Furthermore, Timmerck identified factors such as a sense of accomplishment, recognition, a sense of responsibility, and promotion as the most important motivational priorities
(12). In another study, Raisi and Mohebifar also reported factors such as adequate salary/job benefits, favorable working conditions, and job security to be the first three priorities in this regard
(13).
Hospital jobs impose physical and psychological pressures on employees
(14), and measuring motivation is a critical concept in this area
(15), which provides theoretical and practical insights into the reasons behind different behaviors
(16).
The present study aimed to evaluate the correlation between job motivation and the motivational priorities of the employees working in the hospitals affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
Materials and Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 367 hospital staff of Golestan University of Medical Sciences in 2016 during nine months. The participants were selected via stratified sampling based on the number of the staff per each hospital, followed by a simple randomized self-report, which was performed for the staff of the administrative and financial departments. The nursing and paraclinical employees with minimum work experience of six months who were willing to participate were enrolled in the study.
Data were collected using questionnaires, which were distributed by pre-trained individuals among the eligible samples. Research tools included a demographic questionnaire (age, gender, work experience, ethnicity, marital status, position, workplace, and work shifts) and the standard situational motivation scale (SIMS). The SIMS contains 16 phrases that are scored based on a seven-point likert scale (completely incorrect=1, completely correct=7) within the score range of 16-112; the higher scores in this scale indicate higher job motivation.
The internal reliability of the SIMS has been measured using the Cronbach's alpha for the subscales of internal motivation (0.86), known regulators (0.65), external motivation (0.73), and lack of motivation (0.62)
(17). In Iran, Abedanzadeh et al. have also measured the Cronbach's alpha of the scale for the subscales of internal motivation (0.80), known regulators (0.88), external motivation (0.81), and lack of motivation (0.84; total: 0.82)
(18). In the present study, a test version of the SIMS was completed by 30 hospital staff, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the entire instrument was calculated to be 0.86. The questionnaire of Lawrence Lindal was also used for data collection in the present study, which contains 10 motivational factors scored one for the most importance and 10 for the least importance. This questionnaire was used by Turani et al. in Iran with the retest reliability and correlation of r=0.84
(13).
Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 20 using central indicators and descriptive statistics dispersion. The correlation between job motivation and motivational priorities was assessed using Spearman’s correlation-coefficient due to non-normal data distribution. Moreover, the Mann-Whitney U test and Chi-square were applied to compare the mean scores of the study groups. In all the statistical analyses, the P-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results
The mean age of the participants was 26-50 years, and their mean work experience was 11-30 years. Most of the participants were selected from Gorgan city (n=160; 42.2%), and the smallest number of the participants was in Minoodasht city (n=16; 4.2%). In total, 273 participants (71.8%) had a personal property, 313 (82.6%) worked overtime, 258 participants (68.1%) were employed in medical wards, and the remaining staff were employed in other wards. The majority of the participants were female (n=266; 70.2%), 284 participants (47.9%) had Persian ethnicity, and the majority (n=288; 76%) were married.
According to the findings, interest in the job was the first priority of 84 participants (19.8%), and their lowest motivational priority was full attention and appreciation of the work done (n=39; 9.1%). No significant correlations were observed between the statistical tests, motivational priorities, and other demographic and occupational characteristics (e.g., age, gender, workplace, marital status, overtime work, work shifts, and job position). However, Chi-square showed a significant difference between the city of residence and the motivational priorities of participation (P=0.049), appreciation (P=0.008) and honesty (P=0.040).
According to the results of Kruskal-Wallis test, the mean score of job motivation had a significant difference between various ethnicities (P=0.012). Due to the non-normal distribution of the data, Spearman’s statistical test indicated a significant correlation between job motivation and motivational priorities of management's friendly understanding and attention to employees’ problems (P=0.49; r=-0.095).
Table 1. Frequency distribution of motivational priorities in viewpoint of staff of Golestan University of medical sciences, Iran