EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES ON TQM IMPLEMENTATION AND JOB SATISFACTION IN PUBLIC HEALTH SECTOR

The quality of service in the public health sector is an essential aspect that influences patient satisfaction. Providing quality in public health sector means delivering health service in an affordable, safe and effective manner, with minimal risk and harm for patients. In other words, it means fulfilling patients' needs and surpassing their expectations. In order to provide patients with good-quality and satisfactory service, many public health organizations implement quality standards that contribute with many benefits and advantages, among which employee satisfaction stands out. The objective of the research was to evaluate the attitude of employees in public health institutes towards the dimensions of job satisfaction and their perception of the level of TQM implementation, with regard to the employees' sociodemographic characteristics. In order to achieve this objective, ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses and determine the difference between observed sociodemographic characteristics with regard to the dimensions of job satisfaction and the application of TQM principles in research. Beside that, correlation coefficient was used to test the connection between overall job satisfaction and the level of TQM implementation (overall TQM principles). The findings suggest that level of education and the length of service have a significant effect on the differences in assessments among employees, while position in the workplace affects within certain dimensions of job satisfaction, as well as within their perception of the TQM implementation. Results have also shown that there is a statistically significant relationship between job satisfaction and the level of implementation of TQM principles. The present study provides valuable guidelines for public health sector managers since the results of the research indicate the level of perception of the implementation of TQM principles and job satisfaction dimensions with which employees are the most and the least satisfied, thus pointing out to management in public health sector institutions the areas in which certain improvement measures should be implemented. As this study focuses specifically on Institutes of Public Health, future research could be expanded to encompass other public health institutions such as hospitals and private clinics as well as other sectors.