Employees' Assessment of Leadership in a Tertiary Hospital in South-South Nigeria

Abstract

Background/Objective: There is some evidence that weak leadership in health institutions contributes to underutilization of health services, resulting in high levels of morbidities and mortalities. Employee-rated leadership gaps in a hospital, as done in this study, can promote employee engagement in leadership capacity building to achieve improved health services and outcomes. The study's objective was to measure employees' rating of leadership in an hospital and to identify the associated socio-demographic factors.

Subject and Methods: The study was conducted in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State. The design was cross-sectional analytic. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and senior administrative staff were selected by proportionate random sampling as study participants. With the aid of a questionnaire, respondents rated the hospital's leadership, using the six items in the leadership domain of the workforce version of Malcolm Baldrige tool 'Are we making progress?' The responses were tested for association with socio-demographic variables.

Results: A total of 268 workers participated in the study. Participants who reported knowledge of the hospital's mission (what it is trying to accomplish) totaled 230 (85.8%), which included a significantly higher proportion (88.3%) of those aged < 40 years (p = 0.009). Participants who agreed that their leaders created a conducive work environment for them totaled 181 (67.9%), which included 77% of nurses (p = 0.013). Only 31.0% of respondents affirmed that the organization sought their opinion.

Conclusions: Most employees rated the leadership positively. Leaders should improve on seeking the opinions of employees. Further studies on this subject are recommended.