Untangling Intrinsic Motivation of Health Workers in Uganda and Malawi
1. Untangling Intrinsic Motivation of Health Workers in Uganda and Malawi Ilana Ron Research Associate, Abt Associates Prepared by: Ilana Ron, Allison Goldberg, Paul Kiwanuka-Mukiibi June 16, 2011
2. Presentation Outline Conventional Wisdom and Overarching Research Questions Brief Overview of Study Methodology Limitations of Study Results from Data Analyses Summary and Parting Thoughts
3. Background and Conventional Wisdom Funded by USAID/Washington and USAID/Malawi as part of Health Systems 20/20 project Faith-based institutions (often Christian Health Associations) are better able to attract, retain, and motivate staff than their public counterparts Recent attention by donors given to a wide variety of financial and non-financial incentive schemes to improve health worker performance and motivation
4. Overarching Research Questions What are the levels of intrinsic motivation, retention, and performance factors for health workers in public, faith-based (Christian Health), and private for-profit facilities in Malawi and Uganda? What are drivers of intrinsic motivation for health workers in these sectors? How might intrinsic motivation be improved? How important is faith as a predictor of intrinsic motivation for health workers?
5. Brief Overview of Methodology Equal probability systematic sample selected Uganda: 311 health workers from 91 health facilities (all size levels) interviewed from 20 districts Malawi: 602 health workers from 163 health facilities from every district in Malawi interviewed; in addition, 612 clients interviewed Both qualitative and quantitative data collection Very rich dataset on intrinsic motivation; over 900 health workers from all cadres interviewed
6. Limitations of Study Sample size in each cadre is too small to drill down into results for each cadre; results are a profile of a cadre overall Faith-based sector included Christian Health facilities, not Muslim facilities Data around intrinsic motivation, retention and job satisfaction are not matched with health outcomes; we do not know if more motivated health workers actually perform better (but we assume that they do)
8. Intrinsic Motivation Factors Feeling of being good at the job Feeling of being able to successfully complete all assigned tasks Feeling of being proud of job and position at the facility Opportunities for growth and development Role of faith Daniel Pink definition: internal motivators like enjoyment of work, genuine achievement, personal growth
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11. Strong religious values are significantly associated with health workers’ overall level of intrinsic motivation
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13. Uganda: Predictors of Intrinsic Motivation Strongest predictors of satisfaction and motivation: Adequate equipment and supplies to do job Professional development opportunities Feeling of being “good at job” Fair pay [*not high pay*] compared to others doing similar work Only predictor of satisfaction and motivation related to faith: Feeling that religion can help a health worker serve a client well
16. Reasons to stay at facility: convenience (e.g. house and family are nearby and transport is accessible) and the opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues
17. Health workers’ intrinsic motivation is significantly associated with the decision to retain employment in the public sector.
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19. Summary and Parting Thoughts Very large dataset; only a very small sub-section of results able to be presented today Several key themes emerging: Intrinsic motivation levels are largely not associated with satisfaction about compensation package Particularly in the public sector, intrinsic motivation is a primary driver of retention Biggest drivers of intrinsic motivation: professional development, opportunities for promotion, fairness of compensation Religiosity is an important driver of motivation but exists at the individual and workplace level in the public as well as the FBO sector Striking the balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators is key but difficult
The sample was allocated to each district in proportion to the number of facilities (by sector) in the district. 15 public hospitals were selected with certainty to ensure the inclusion of very large health facilities in the sample; this selection was done on the basis of size distribution in each district. The sample was also constructed to allow for adequate representation of three sizes (small, medium, and large) of facilities across all sectors, and CHAM facilities both with and without SLAs in place.Uganda: 165 public sector workers and 146 PNFP workers
The qualitative data suggest that opportunities to learn from experienced colleagues and access skills training (e.g. on new procedures like providing vaccines or refresher courses) impact health workers’ intrinsic motivation-Sampling weights were used to account for the variation in the number of health facilities across sectors and geographic clusters-Descriptive and bivariate analyses: used meansCorrelations– describes the degree of a relationship between two variables, a value of >.5 indicates a substantive relationship and regressions- tests the significance of a relationship between two or more variables.-Confidence interval in parentheses- more narrow the CI, more reliable estimate-Range of the composite indices are 5-40 with 40 indicating highest levels of morale and motivation
Look at very high level of association in the private sector between religiosity and intrinsic motivation--- perhaps not what you would expect.Asterik- signifies a statistically significant relationship at the 5% level; 95% confidence that the relationship is true and not due to chance
Striking, statistically significant differences in professional development opportunities- overall, high levels of satisfaction with job for both sectors.-No differences in intention to stay at facility over next 12 months- 70% wish to stay
Statistically significant differences in adequacy of compensation but similar levels of fairness of compensation
Intrinsic motivators are difficult to package and export between sectors