Human Resource Management for Ghanaian Nurses: Job Satisfaction Versus Turnover Intentions

Abstract

The study has the aim of exploring the determinants of turnover intentions and job satisfaction of nurses. A survey of 163 nurses from two public and two private hospitals in the capital of Ghana, Accra, who completed a questionnaire in English, was conducted. The study uses SEM analysis to evaluate the goodness-of-fit of the model and to test hypotheses. Regarding the findings, pay rise, pay structure/administration and job satisfaction were significantly and negatively related to turnover intentions. However, the effect of benefits on turnover intentions was nonsignificant and was negatively associated with turnover intentions. The antecedents of nurses’ job satisfaction, all the constructs, i.e., pay level, pay rise, benefits, and pay structure/administration, had positive and statistically significant impacts. The influence of pay level, pay structure/administration and pay rise had the most important effect on nurses’ job satisfaction. In addition, the age status as a control variable had negative and significant effects on turnover intentions. However, gender status as a control effect had a nonsignificant impact on turnover intentions. It is recommended that the government of Ghana, the Ministry of Health, and the Ghana Health Service must institute measures such as the provision of competitive salaries and a quality work environment to entice nurses to stay in order to reduce the exodus of nurses outside the shores of Ghana. One limitation of this study is that there are other factors that could cause employees to quit their jobs, such as employee commitment, engagement, and leadership behaviours but these variables were not tested. Therefore, future studies must control these variables in studies regarding pay satisfaction and turnover intentions.