Workplace conflict and the productivity of employees in the healthcare sector: A case study

Abstract

The study aims at examining the impact of workplace conflict on employee productivity in the healthcare industry. Workplace conflict is a dysfunctional stressor that undermines the endeavours, and performances of any workplace (Adewole & Adebola, 2010). While it adopted the descriptive survey design for the investigation, the participants were 4541 comprising senior and junior staff members from the five selected Federal Health Institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria (namely: University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu, the Nigerian Army 82 Division Hospital and Police Clinic). Using Freund and Wilson’s formula (Freund & Wilson, 1993), a sample size of 233 was calculated with a 10 percent error margin from the population. A questionnaire set was used to collect data, which was analysed using regression analysis and Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC). Findings indicated that employee gender differences had a substantial impact on employee turnover, while employee growth and leadership style were found to be linked. The study thus concludes that workplace conflict has a substantial impact on the performance of employees in the sector and geography studied. Hinging this study’s relevance to the novelty of exploring unmatched variables (workplace conflict and productivity) to fill the existent empirical gap. Thus, critically analysing the current state of the sector, its region, and selected firms.