Impact of Motivation on Efficiency and Performance

The public sector faces various limitation which restricts the organization's ability to incentivize employees to increase employee morale. Leaders of all levels must find creative ways to motivate employees to positively affect performance and therefore, increase patient satisfaction. Patients have the option to be treated by private organization for their medical and mental health needs, creating a competition for our public hospitals and clinics. It is necessary to keep patients happy with the services that Health Services offers to retain the business of patients. Hospitals and clinics are scored, by a third party, based on surveys completed by patients, which ranks the hospitals and clinics in comparison to similar private and public facilities. The results of those surveys are deciding factors on the facilities' eligibility for government subsidies and grants. Leadership of all levels are faced with staff shortages, high turnover rates and absenteeism which are all believed to be factors of low morale and job un-satisfaction. Unlike the private sector, managers and supervisors do not have the freedom to incentivize employees with monetary raises, bonuses or even small gestures such as food or gifts. In the public sector, employees cannot just be given promotions based on their performance or be given privileges vi that are not approved. On the other hand, employees that do not perform at a high capacity cannot be punished without proper procedures which can be extensive and time consuming and cannot be a supervisor's priority due to high demands in relation to patient care. The direct correlation between a leader's ability to motivate an employees and an employee's moral affect the satisfaction of the patients that are being served, makes the issue an administrative matter. Developing methods to engage employees and increase moral within civil service rules in a patient centered environment is the key to statistically improve the facilities ratings and therefore, retaining patients and organizational success.