EMPIRICALLY VALIDATING THE JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR

EMPIRICALLY VALIDATING THE JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR

The original model developed by Hackman & Oldham (1976, 1980) was tested for the healthcare sector in India following three staged model as proposed by the original authors. Out of several studies conducted so far using this model, majority of the studies had adopted two staged model. Stratified sampling technique was adopted to select the hospitals (equal number of hospitals selected from private, public and trust hospitals). Convenience sampling was adopted to administer the questionnaire (questionnaires were administered to the target sample from hospitals that gave permission under the three categories). Judgmental sampling method was adopted for deciding whom to administer the questionnaire. Inclusion and exclusion criteria included as employees should have worked for minimum 12 months in the present hospital to complete the questionnaire. 1550 questionnaires were distributed and 1244 fully completed questionnaires were compiled for analysis (80% response rate). Initially the model was tested using structural equation modeling. The study found that the job characteristics model as suggested by Oldham and Hackman (1976 and 1980) did not find good fit in the healthcare sector in India. Further the model was tested separately for nursing, paramedical and nonmedical category as they were the major stake holders in the healthcare sector. The result of the second model fit was also poor and found further fall in strength, which was tested based on the categorization ?? paramedical, nursing and nonmedical staff. Hence, the researcher found no scope of testing the structural equation model any further. Therefore, as the measurement model fails, the researcher intended to explore the dimensions using exploratory factor analysis. The result of the exploratory analysis indicated extracted 17 dimensions from 83 items. These 17-factors extracted from the exploratory factor were applicable to the Indian healthcare sector. This new tool needs to be tested in India for measuring the job characteristics, psychological states and personal outcome linkages. In this study we have analyzed the implications based on the results found. Some of the implications of the study were in the area of autonomy and feedback from the core job dimensions, experienced meaningfulness and knowledge of result from the critical psychological states and general satisfaction and specific satisfaction on pay from the personal outcome. We found very low pay satisfaction among the healthcare workers in India. It is suggested to the future scholars to experiment with the proposed new tool in the future research and explore the new model. A focused study interview could be conducted to find out the responses to job design using the qualitative approach and interviewing the most experienced professionals in hospitals. Two stage model could be tested in the Indian healthcare sector that is job characteristics and personal outcome, excluding critical psychological states. Key words: Job characteristics model, Healthcare, Paramedical, Nonmedical, Nurses.

Moras Melvin

Psychology