Exploring the Impact of Role Congruence on Work-Related Stress and Employee Productivity in Public Health Facilities: A Qualitative Study in Kwara State, Nigeria

Currently, healthcare facilities in Kwara State are characterized by massive expansion and high rate of patients’ enrolment seeking for medical care which is creating so much misunderstandings leading to physical assaults of healthcare workers by patients’ relatives who wrongly assumed they are not getting the required attention and care from these workers but was majorly caused by stress due to shortage of manpower. The shortages of competent healthcare professionals in most public health facilities in Nigeria make the available staff being over-stretched beyond limit thereby causing them a lot of stress which decreased their productive capacities. Hence, this study seeks to evaluate the relationship between role congruence and productivity of healthcare workers in public hospitals in Kwara State, Nigeria. This study is a descriptive study adopting the survey and case study method using the deductive approach and relying on qualitative method. The population of study comprised 2,139 staff across the 46 hospitals owned by the Kwara State government. The interview responses were analyzed and transcribed thematically using Nvivo 12 software. Therefore, this study concluded that effective matching of individual employees’ characteristics and attributes with the assigned roles, tasks and responsibilities is an essential determinant that influences healthcare workers’ output and productivity. As such, the study recommended that healthcare facilities must ensure they take into consideration the safety, well-being and emotions of healthcare workers while assigning roles and responsibilities in order to exalt positive energies from employees which lead to increased productivity at workplace.