Health Workers’ Commitment in Delta State: Influence of Personality and Workplace Experiences

Abstract

Aim: Health workers’ commitment is very important in the effective discharge of their duties but this may be compromised when challenged by workplace experiences. Research is therefore required to provide data base to inform policy decision on health workers’ commitment to their work. This research therefore investigated personality ( emotional intelligence and fortitude) and workplace experiences (job-characteristics and perceived alternative employment opportunities) as predictors of commitment among health workers. Method: The study utilized cross - sectional design. The participants were two hundred and twenty-three (223), randomly selected from Federal Medical Center, Delta State- 90(40.4%) males and 133(59.6%) females with the mean age of 34.3 and standard deviation of 8.07. The participants completed a structured questionnaire that measures the dependent and independent variables of the study. Inferential statistics were used to test the hypotheses stated. Result: The independent variables significantly and jointly predicted 12% of the variance in career commitment among the health workers. Specifically, emotional intelligence independently influenced career commitment. Job status and year of experience jointly and significantly interacted to influence career commitment. However, only job status had significant main influence of on career commitment. Married respondents reported higher level of career commitment than those who were single. Conclusion: Emotional intelligence, job status and being married were associated with the career commitment of the health workers in this study. It is recommended that policy makers should incorporate these factors into capacity building programmes to enhance health workers’ commitment. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p258