ABSTRACT
Employee job description is critical for ensuring the performance of employees in an organization. Specifically, the study aimed at identifying the practices of employee job description, evaluating the work performance of employees, and examining the association between job description and work performance at the NHIA. A structured, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 168 workers at various departments and units at the Authority. From the findings of the study, the respondents agreed to two main forms of employee job description being practiced and exhibited mainly in the organization, namely, job identification and job performance appraisals of employees. From the correlational analysis however, all four forms of employee job description were significant predictors of the work performance. The regression results on the other hand however revealed that, only the job performance appraisals and the decision-making authority, had significant positive with the work performance of workers at the NHIA. Management of the Authority is advised to improve upon the job description of the employees in terms of role identification and responsibilities, and as well motivate the employees with attractive rewards and employee support systems.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
           Background of the Study
Employee job descriptions are written statements that define the tasks, duties, responsibilities, required qualification, working hours, and reporting relationships of a particular job (Farahbod, Salimi, & Dorostkar, 2013). Job descriptions are based on objective information acquired from job analysis, an understanding of the competences and skills needed to complete an assigned tasks, and the need for an organization to improve productivity and performance at the workplace (Mollel, Mulongo, & Razia, 2017). Crafting an effective job description offers an opportunity to communicate clearly the direction of a company and informs an employee where he or she fits within the big picture of the organization (Dobni, 2010). An effective job description helps to align the direction of employee with the organizational goals, vision and mission in order to achieve clarity of purpose and higher performance (Khan, Ishaq, & Nawaz, 2013). The current study examines the effect of employee job description on work performance at the National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana.
Effective job descriptions are very beneficial in the fields of HRM like job grading and classification, career paths, career developments, handling grievances relating to the duties and responsibilities at the work place, work measurement and working improvements. The job description of employees further defines the limits to authority, training and development, development of performance standards, the establishment of good working relationships and conducive environments at the work place, and a healthy communication between employees and employers on one hand, and employees and customers on the other (Farahbod, Salimi, &
Dorostkar, 2013). Ishaq (2015), further argued that, the information on an effective job description will be useful for job evaluation, job redesign, performance management and organizational change. According to Ishaq (2015), in order for organizations to avoid repetition of work and overlapping of duties, the job description of employees should be designed and structured to help achieve organizational goals and objectives.
The work performance of employees is a usually used term to refer to whether one is effective on his or her job by producing the desired quality and quantity of assignments (Ishak, 2015). Dobni (2010) describes employee performance as the extent to which an employee demonstrates the ability to clearly define solutions to problem areas at the work place. The ability of an employee to complete a specific tasks within the set deadline and other time-sensitive expectations is another means of measuring employee work performance (Cascio & Aguinis, 2015). According to Lau and Ngo (2014), competency and efficiency are critical factors to be considered when measuring the performance of employees at the work place. While competency measures the degree to which an individual exhibits his or her ethical business practices and consistency between his or her values and performance, efficiency on the other hand measures how effectively an employee’s production processes are to be streamlined, in terms of the steps he or she needs to perform in order to complete a task (Dobni, 2010).
The work performance of employee can be measured by using key performance indicators (KPIs), which are methods organization adopts to measure the proficiency of its workers, management personnel, and in determining the overall health of the business (Carmeli, 2015). These indicators are usually relevant to all employees in an organization, although businesses may customize their
own KPIs based on the activity of that business (Aryee & Chen, 2016). Allen and Meyer (2010), note that, the key performance indicators, are critical since they give managers the set of necessary instructions required to evaluate employees, create plans for improvement and solve work-related problems. This way, the managers are able to measure how effectively their workers are performing and also how close they are, to achieving their set targets (Aryee & Chen, 2016). The current study therefore gives a vivid assessment on the effect of employee job description on work performance at the NHIA.
           Statement of the Problem
There are few studies about the effect of employee job description on their work performance at the work place (Khan et al., 2013). The job description of employees at the workplace is increasing in importance in recent times as competition for skills and competencies keeps rising (Lau & Ngo, 2014). The question to ask is whether the job description of employees at the workplace has any influence on their job performance? It is for this reason that the current study seeks to investigate whether the argument holds by critically examining the effect of employee job description on work performance at the NHIA in Ghana.
The National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana is confronted with enormous problems that impacts directly on the job description of employees, and consequently on their overall job performance negatively (NHIA, Strategic Plan, 2018). Key among them is the financial sustainability of the National Health Insurance Scheme. In this regard, the NHIS is not financially viable under the current design and operational policies. This affects the basic benefit packages for employees. There is also inadequate staff at the district offices which ultimately leads to
capacity management, most especially, in the area of claims. There are weaknesses in the ICT platform, as well as data integrity issues (NHIA, Strategic Plan, 2018).
There is poor subscriber understanding of the principles of health insurance, inadequate post credentialing monitoring, weak feedback mechanisms from stakeholders, lack of effective claims management system to detect fraudulent claims from service providers, ineffective gatekeeper system or referral system and inability to effectively monitor service utilization and cost, inability to pay premium or renewal by subscribers, administrative and managerial inefficiencies due to the absence of a modern HMIS (NHIA, Strategic Plan, 2016). These have resulted in poor management of claims, inadequate quality assurance, waste and inefficiencies in administrative costs for NHIS and healthcare providers and incomplete information on enrollees. There is also the problem of a highly centralized nature of the scheme, administrative inefficiencies and gaps in human capacity (NHIA, Strategic Plan, 2017). The Claim Processing Centre has a greater challenge because it is farther away from providers, and finally, there are problems regarding the prescription and dispensing of unapproved medicines to the NHIS subscribers (NHIA, Strategic Plan, 2017).
The above problems currently confronting the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana, give rise to the issue of employee job description, employee motivation, employee job satisfaction, employee productivity, and the overall work performance of the employees at the workplace. The current study therefore intends to bridge the gap in the extant literature conducted on employee job description and their work performance which focused more on the western cultures and
therefore leave little research done in Africa, especially, Ghana (Raju & Banerjee, 2017; Singh, Sharma, & Bhuker, 2014; & Heathfiled, 2007).
Current studies on the effectiveness of employee job description on their work performance in Africa, have been limited to the impact of job description on organizational performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment at the work place (Farahbod, Salimi, & Dorostkar, 2013); and the role of job description on organizational performance within the telecommunications sector of Kenya (Syallow, Mberia, & Bosire, 2017). The current study seeks to fill the gap in the extant empirical literatures, by critically examining the effect of employee job description on work performance at the NHIA in Ghana.
