A mixed methods analysis of the magnitude and associated factors of time management practice among primary hospital employees in North Gondar, Ethiopia

Abstract

Time management contributes to work efficiency, maintaining balance, and job satisfaction by promoting productivity and success. Most people believe they have so much to do and not enough time, and they attribute their unmet expectations, poor results, and low productivity to a lack of time. The aim of this study was to determine the magnitude and associated factors of time management practice among primary hospital employees in North Gondar, Ethiopia.From March 15 to April 28, 2017, a hospital-based cross-sectional mixed methods (both quantitative and qualitative) study design was conducted in North Gondar Zone. For the quantitative part, pre-tested, standardized questionnaires; as well as an interviewer guide for the qualitative part of the study were used for data collection. Using a random sampling technique, 391 employees were completed the questionnaires. A multivariate and bi-variate logistic regression analysis at AOR with a 95% CI and a p-value of < 0.5 were used to identify significant factors of the study. For qualitative data, thematic content analysis was performed. A total of 391 participants (a response rate of 92.6%) took part in the study. The number of participants who practice time management was 56.4% (95% CI: 49.3%, 61.7%). Organizational policies (AOR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.02, 4.68), performance appraisal systems (AOR: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.32, 4.66), compensation and benefits system (AOR: 4.18; 95% CI: 2.18, 7.99), employee planning experience (AOR: 2.86; 95% CI: 1.42, 5.75), and residence (AOR: 2.08; 95% CI: 1.08, 4.01) were found predictors of time management practice among primary hospital employees. Overall, there was a moderate level of time management practice in the study area. Significant factors found were organizational policies, compensation and benefits packages, performance appraisal systems, planning experience, and residency. Therefore, managers need to develop an intervention to address all the above factors in order to improve time management practice of primary hospital employees at work.

Time management practice and associated factors among employees working in public health centers, Northwest Ethiopia: a mixed method study

“…Each of which was graded by a 5-point Likert scale. finally, it was grouped as satisfied if their responses were greater than the mean score value and unsatisfied if their answers were less than the mean score value [ 27 ]. Organizational policy : Organizational policies and strategies were used to express the respondent’s feelings about the implementation of organizational policies and strategies.…”

“…It is obvious that the goal of appropriate time management at work entails producing high-quality work rather than a large amount of it [ 6 ]. Setting goals and priorities as well as scheduling and delegating activities, can help more productive and successful at work, results in an increased job effectiveness, balance, and satisfaction [ 7 ].…”

“…There are different factors which could affect time management practice. These factors are personal factors like procrastination habit, punctuality and time waster [ 14 ], organizational factors like organizational policy, performance appraisal, work environment, compensation to benefit promotion or recognition and employee performance related factors like planning experience, responsibility and implementation [ 7 , 14 , 20 ]. Other socio-demographic factors such as age, profession, marital status, educational status, salary, experience and sex have also been considered as associated factors [ 15 , 21 , 22 ].…”

“…1 Conceptual framework of factors affecting employees’ time management practices at Dabat District northwest Ethiopia, 2022. Adapted from different of literature [ 7 , 14 , 20 ] …”

“…Even though there are limited studies conducted to assess time management practice, almost all of them were concentrating on the educational sector [ 24 – 26 ] and in primary hospital [ 27 ]. Moreover, most of the previous studies used only quantitative method which makes the result weak and less informative.…”