Job Satisfaction and relating it to Kuwait (Al Sabah Hospital) The quality of health carein any organization is considered to take a multi phenomenal dimension. Job satisfaction on the other hand in health care organizations such as hospitals and clinics is a crucial variable in determining the quality of health care offered. Al Sabah Hospital in Kuwait has taken this into consideration and has employed several measures in order to provide best care and satisfaction to its employees. Studies indicate that doctors, nurses and other employees in any health care centre stay longer and perform better when they are satisfied at their work place.
The same has been witnessed in the Al Sabah Hospital as job dissatisfaction has been seen to result in tardiness, absenteeism, increased turnover and grievances. The above consequents of dissatisfaction lead to an increased employment costs in the long run. Job dissatisfaction also leads to the decrease in performance of employees and negatively affects the quality of health care offered. In order to check on this, the Al Sabah Hospital has come up with appropriate monetary flexibility and compensation in the working schedule of employees to act as job satisfaction predictors.
The nurses and doctors participation in formalization and decision making of the structure of the organization has great impact on job satisfaction. More so, autonomy, interpersonal identity and work relation identities are viewed as major job satisfaction predictors (Pearson and Butler 47). Meaningful recognition and verbal feedback that is functional act as satisfiers among the employees of this renowned hospital. Age is a major consideration in job satisfaction in Al Sabah Hospital. Doctors and nurses are seen to be more satisfied with their work as compared to the young doctors and nurses.
The young employees often have higher demands but while their age advances, their possibility of adopting better to their work increases. There is a positive correlation between overall job satisfaction and the age gap especially in primary health. Most of the employees living the hospitals are mostly forced to do so because of job dissatisfaction than any other reason. Gender has proved to be another striking feature when it comes to this organization. The male doctors and nurses seem to be more satisfied with their work more compared to their female colleagues.
Factors such as sick leave durations and physical health contributed less to job satisfaction among employee in Al Sabah Hospital. There is a belief in the hospital that nurses and doctors are indispensable thus are expected to go on with their work even when they get ill. It is also common with doctors and nurses who experience fewer issues with their patients as they tend to be more satisfied. Changes in the relationship between patients and physicians have been observed to have positive impact in the satisfaction on either side.
The relationship includes the contact of these physicians and other physicians as well as other workers in the health care. Generally, the working conditions and operational rules of the Al Sabah Hospital are in a way that they ensure that its doctors and nurses are satisfied in their work. Education levels also had its contribution to the job satisfaction among employees. Nurses having diploma qualification were observed to have greater levels of job satisfaction compared to other nurses who were degree holders.
This applied to other workers in other areas in the hospital. This is in no way related to the salaries of these two groups as the salary structure of nurses in the hospital had insignificant differences though the degree holders enjoyed higher salaries (Eskildsen and Westlund 41). However, the job satisfaction among diploma holders’ can be associated to the fact that diploma nurses earn more salary in Kuwait than in other countries in the world. Most of the doctors and nurses who have worked in other areas and moved into this hospital often get more satisfied than where they were.
This explains why workers in this hospital stay for longer periods compared to other hospitals meaning that they are more satisfied. Recommendations For more physical satisfaction to be achieved in Al Sabah Hospital, the management of the hospital should come up with measures that put more attention in the practice conditions, income, and work variety so as to improve the physical work satisfaction. This will ensure that more than two thirds of the employees in the hospital no matter their position will be satisfied with their work.
This will also help the organization to clearly define the boundaries between job dissatisfaction and job satisfaction. This can be easily achieved by the organization coming up with a medical system policy structure covering every area of the hospital. One concern about this hospital is the number of professional staff. It is recommended that the hospital should increase the number of nurses and doctors who are highly qualified to meet the high demand of such services in the hospital. The management of the hospital should also come up with orientation program that is carefully planned so as to ensure that the staffs are provided with different cultural understanding and learn how to cope with such situations when they arise.
The hospital should also pay special attention to the norms on interaction between females and males in general as well as social interaction that exists among professionals coming from the opposite genders. Other measures should also be put to address the cultural differences especially the western treatment and care culture as some patients are against the way they are taken care of. The Islamic culture also results to some conflicts in the working environment especially the issue of shaking hands with colleagues and the interactions between opposite genders.
Works Cited Eskildsen, J & Westlund, A. Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction in the Nordic Countries. Employee Relations, 26, 1, 12-138, 2004. Pearson, R & Butler, J. Hospital Perception of Job Satisfaction. Nursing Management, 20(8):45-48
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