Strike Actions in the Health Sector: Does Leadership Play a Role? A Study of College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which leadership style contributes to striking actions in the Health Sector. The study adopted a quantitative approach with a sample size of 149. A Structured Standardize Questionnaire was used to gather data from the respondents. Mean, standard deviation and frequency count were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that bureaucratic and autocratic leadership styles were among the causes of the strike action; coupled with delays in salary increments, poor working conditions, unfairness in promotion, and non-involvement of union leaders in decision-making. The study also revealed that the strike action of the college affects patient care, students’ academic programmes, and productivity as well as cause loss of employees’ wages. The study recommended measures to curtail strike action such as improvement in the condition of service for employees, involvement of union leaders in decision-making, fairness in promotion procedure and more importantly, adoption of democratic, transformational and transactional leadership instead of bureaucratic and autocratic style would create industrial harmony in the school.