WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF MEDICAL EMPLOYEES: A STUDY OF TEACHING HOSPITALS IN NORTHCENTRAL, NIGERIA

This paper studied workplace flexibility and performance among medical employees of teaching hospitals in Nigeria. The study focused on North Central Nigeria. It discussed the need to elicit higher performance in medical employees that is patients' focused and ensures the safety of patients by way of having control over their jobs. The study employed a survey design, using a sample of 373 medical employees of six teaching hospitals in North Central Nigeria. A questionnaire using a 5-point Likert type scale was used for data collection and data analysis was conducted using Regression with the aid of SPSS version 23.The study found that compact working week and flexible career path as dimensions of Workplace flexibility had significant positive relationship with patient focus and patient safety respectively. Overall, the study demonstrated that workplace flexibility significantly influences performance of medical employees. Many previous studies that examined workplace flexibility and performance focused on other sectors beside healthcare. This study contributes to the existing debates by focusing on healthcare employees in Nigeria. Through the findings, the results can be applicable to the healthcare sector suggesting the important role of workplace flexibility among healthcare professionals. The study validates and strengthens the view that health systems studies are emerging as factual interdisciplinary fields of investigation where ideas from several and divergent viewpoints are combined into conceptual frameworks to address healthcare problems. It further contributes to expanding knowledge on the consequence of employee support through the use of flexible practices in the work place to boost the commitment of medical employees and subsequently, their performance in terms of commitment to safety and patient centred care. The study further reinforces and validates the Attribution theory and its significance to flexibility studies and made recommendations to help manage employees in the healthcare sector for optimal performance. This study closes the research gap with similar researches on performance improvement among employees in healthcare organisations in developing countries.