Employee Commitment and Patient Satisfaction: An Initial Reflection from Indian Healthcare Sector

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between employee commitment and patient satisfaction with respect to healthcare industry. The research will focus on the concept of employee (organizational) commitment. Emphasis will be placed on attitudinal aspects and behavioral influences, and the effect of human resources strategies and management practices on employee (organizational) commitment. Also, the concept of patient satisfaction, which has gained increasing attention from executives across the healthcare industry, will be explored in an attempt to enhance better patient experiences at hospitals. This research was conducted in two centers of a leading medical service provider in Bengaluru city. The population for this study consists of all the employees directly interacting with the customers (excluding doctors), in the two centers. The total population was (N=50), as reflected on the personnel list obtained from the HR department of the organization. The Independent variable in this study is employee (organizational) commitment, and the dependent variable is patient satisfaction. A slight positive correlation between the employee commitment (affective component) and patient satisfaction is observed in our study, thereby highlighting the importance of employee commitment (especially the affective component) in organizations, particularly in the healthcare sector which is essentially a people-centric industry.