Job Characteristics as Correlates of Work Engagement among Health Workers in a Public Hospital in Makurdi

Abstract

This study investigated job characteristics as correlates of work engagement among workers of a public hospital in Makurdi, Benue State. Correlational research approach was used and a total of 196 (122 males and 74 females) respondents were randomly selected for the study. Their ages ranged from 21-56 years with the mean age of 36.44 years. One hundred and fifty four of the participants were senior staff members while forty two were junior staff members. Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were used to assess job characteristics and work engagement of participants respectively. Results showed significant positive relationship between task variety (r(191) = 0.15; p < 0.01), task significance (r(191) = 0.51; p < 0.01), autonomy (r(191) = 0.18; p < 0.01),feedback (r(191) = 0.19; p < 0.01) and work engagement. There was no significant relationship between task identity and work engagement. The implications of these findings to health institutions were discussed. It was recommended among other things that employees should be given opportunities to perform a variety of tasks on the job as this will make them demonstrate their unique skills thereby fostering work engagement.