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Many organisations are increasingly making use of employee recognition to motivate employees to achieve high performance and productivity. Research has shown that effective recognition occurs in organisations that have strong supportive culture, understand the psychology of praising employees for their good work, and apply the principles of employee recognition. This paper examined employee recognition, its benefits and the various types of employee recognition programs. It also sought to propose that employee recognition looked at from the perspective of formal, informal and day-to-day, could motivate staff to ensure high performance in Ghanaian universities. It is thus, recommended that management of Ghanaian universities should commit credible resources to the design and implementation of employee recognition programs to yield the needed outcome.

Purpose: The industrial training component in a university's curricula adds tremendous value to a degree programme by enhancing the employable skills of graduates. The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception of organisations that have trained construction students from the Department of Building Technology of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, as part of its industrial training programme. Design/methodology/approach: Through a structured questionnaire survey of 120 organisations which have offered industrial training to construction students in the Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast metropolitan areas of Ghana, the paper assessed industry's views on issues relating to the nature and objectives of industrial training, preparation towards training, performance of students during training, effectiveness of the training and areas of improvement. Data collected through the survey were analysed using largely descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings: In the opinion of the training organisations, industrial training exposes students to real work environment and helps them to apply theory to practice. During industrial training, the trainees showed high level of performance achievement in their ability to carry out instructions, ability to function as team players and ability to apply knowledge gained from the university among others. However, they showed a low level of performance achievement in negotiation skills, independence, social and multi-racial awareness and ability to make decisions. Major areas requiring improvement in the way industrial training is currently organised include: the need for learning institutions to provide guidelines for industrial training for use by host organisations and to monitor trainees during industrial training; training organisations should design training programmes which emphasise all competencies, appoint industrial supervisors and submit industrial feedback to learning institutions. Practical implications: The findings from the study will not only make industrial training programmes in Ghana and other developing countries more effective and successful towards the improvement of skills of trainees and thereby increase their chances of employment after graduation but also provide a reliable source of highly skilled and educated workers and an expanded pool of qualified future employees. Originality/value: The paper provides a basis for enhancing and developing effective IT practices as well as providing indicators for evaluating existing IT practices in Ghanaian and other universities in developing countries to positively influence future employees of the construction industry. (Contains 3 tables and 7 figures.)

The paper discusses the types of leadership style exhibited by leaders in the library and how the leadership style has influenced employee's commitment in the provision of library and information services in Ghana. The rationale of the paper was to find ways of improving upon leadership in the library and employees' commitment. The investigation was underpinned by the path-goal theory; adopted the positivism paradigm and employed the survey research design. Questionnaires was used to collect data from 140 respondents. Interviews and observations were also used to triangulate the data collected. Participants were selected using purposive and simple random sampling. In view of this, a sample size of 146 comprising of 6 senior members, 38 senior staff and 102 junior staff were selected out of 230 employees for the study. IBM SPSS version 22.0 in combination with Microsoft excel and thematic content analysis were used to analyse the quantitative data and qualitative data respectively. It emerged from the study that employees were not motivated by the leadership style of the library and therefore they were less committed in providing services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The United Nations through its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and 5 has championed Women empowerment for exclusive breastfeeding through various action plans and expected the concept to be decentralized through locally mandatory implementation of various institutional policies and programs in member Countries. Using Kabeer's empowerment concept, the authors in this paper assessed availability and implementation of breastfeeding policies and programs in three public universities in Ghana. Methods: The study design was an exploratory-descriptive-case study involving university employees and student mothers from three public universities in Ghana. The universities were selected via simple random approach whilst selection of participants was purposive. Data were collected between April and July 2018 using an unstructured interview guide developed by the authors, audio recordings, field notes and desktop review of documents. Manual thematic analysis of data was done to present results descriptively. The University of Cape-Coast Ethics Review Board approved the study. Results: Thirty-six respondents participated in the study. Three main themes (Breastfeeding policy and programs, Institutional support, and views on Breastfeeding/Childcare support) emerged. Despite being gender/child friendly, none of the universities in this study has a formal breastfeeding/childcare policy/program and there are no immediate policy plans for on-campus facilities to enhance breastfeeding. Financial cost emerged as a major challenge hindering the universities from implementing a policy/program in this regard. On the part of student mothers, lack of legal protection, lack of breastfeeding-friendly university policies, inadequate availability of breastfeeding facilities, and insufficient awareness of the importance of breastfeeding among nursing mothers has been a major setback for breastfeeding on campus, hence nursing mothers continue to make personal but challenging arrangements for breastfeeding on university campuses. Conclusions: The study findings reflect negative implications for childcare as it affects optimal child nutrition, hence impacting on achieving the SDGs 3 and 5 in Ghana. The authors recommend introducing formal breastfeeding-friendly policies/programs as one of the criteria for accreditation of universities in Ghana to enhance optimal childcare and sound maternal mind for studies and/or work once there is an assurance of child safety and proximity to breastfeed on demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaged employees play significant roles toward organizational success. They exhibit different characteristics—dedicated, absorbed, and work with vigor. This paper explains the complex relationship between employee engagement (EE) and task performance in Ghana, a developing country with its unique collectivist and high‐power distance culture. Electricity Company of Ghana was purposively selected and its employees were quantitatively surveyed. Structural equation modelling, partial least squares, was used to examine the relationship. Results show that EE has a positive and significant effect on employee task performance (ETP). Results increase the level and confirmed generalizability of the findings that when employees are engaged, they perform better. Vigor, a dimension of EE, has significant impact on ETP than dedication and absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of internal marketing (IM) as an internal supportive system that could provide the infrastructure for a strategic business take-off. It investigates how IM, as a concept, is understood and made practical in the context of Ghanaian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This qualitative research method was used due to the nature of the enquiry. The government of Ghana is constantly searching for more effective ways of assisting SME performance, through various strategic growth and development schemes. Despite the fact that much has been said in the literature, the IM concept remains elusive. Most SMEs are not aware of IM and demonstrate little understanding of the concept. And SMEs have problems with the implementation of IM. The manufacturing sector demonstrates more IM orientation than does the service sector. This paper unravels sociocultural factors that frustrate the practice of IM among Ghanaian SMEs and calls for a greater awareness of the concept by stakeholders. Suggestions include more general business support for SMEs to improve performance and subsequently grow. The paper finishes by drawing attention to management implications within the practice of IM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Implementing quality programmes faces challenges and are not able to yield the needed results. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which three key variables referred to as employee development, empowerment and participation (EDEP) determine the success of a quality programme of printing firms in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – The study is purely quantitative and data were collected from a cross-sectional survey of workers from printing firms in Ghana. The questionnaire instrument assesses the practices of the firms on development, empowerment and participation of employees. Descriptive, correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to ascertain the contribution and relationship of the variables to quality achievement. Findings – EDEP is directly and significantly related to print quality achievement. Among the three variables, participation has the greatest effect and contributes significantly to quality achievement. This is followed by empowerment, which has moderate effect on successful quality programme. Research limitations/implications – The study was unable to evaluate entire Total Quality Management dimensions. More extended research, preferably longitudinal study, is needed to establish how EDEP affect quality achievement in organisations. Practical implications – Achieving quality printing depends on the level of attention to EDEP. The study suggests that when employees participate fully in quality drive and self-manage their actions and duties, high-quality printing can be assured. Social implications – The study provides useful information on factors that have been overlooked or given less attention, yet affect quality programmes of the firms. Originality/value – The study empirically measure critical success factors of a quality in the printing firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research used a qualitative study method which is to draw analysis from inductive angles. Our objectives were, first, to determine the impact of remuneration on the job satisfaction of employees, second, to further understand whether there is equity in remuneration policies that are applied to employees in general, and third, to establish other remuneration systems that exist in most hospitality pay policies. This research aimed to assess the impact of remuneration and job satisfaction among hotel workers, there is a need to gather data on remuneration and job satisfaction of hospitality services in Ghana. This is an inductive study based on a non-probability sampling technique. A quota sampling of 50 AH Hotel workers responded to the questionnaire. Quota sampling is a non-probability sampling method that relies on the non-random selection or convenience of a predetermined number or proportion of units. The research designed closed-ended and open questions in the interview questionnaire (as a data collection instrument of a qualitative nature) which the respondents gave their feedback. The research findings show that remuneration payment has a greater impact on job satisfaction because many of the employees were happy with their salaries/wages. This is the reason why they are retained as loyal staff with good morale, punctuality at work, and, good team players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Choosing who should be recruited as a community health worker (CHW) is an important task, for their future performance partly depends on their ability to learn the required knowledge and skills, and their personal attributes. Developing a fair and effective selection process for CHWs is a challenging task, and reports of attempts to do so are rare. This paper describes a five-stage process of development and initial testing of a CHW selection process in two CHW programmes, one in Malawi and one in Ghana, highlighting the lessons learned at each stage and offering recommendations to other CHW programme providers seeking to develop their own selection processes.Case Presentation: The five stages of selection process development were as follows: (1) review an existing selection process, (2) conduct a job analysis, (3) elicit stakeholder opinions, (4) co-design the selection process and (5) test the selection process. Good practice in selection process development from the human resource literature and the principles of co-design were considered throughout. Validity, reliability, fairness, acceptability and feasibility-the determinants of selection process utility-were considered as appropriate during stages 1 to 4 and used to guide the testing in stage 5. The selection methods used by each local team were a written test and a short interview.Conclusions: Working with stakeholders, including CHWs, helped to ensure the acceptability of the selection processes developed. Expectations of intensiveness-in particular the number of interviewers-needed to be managed as resources for selection are limited, and CHWs reported that any form of interview may be stressful. Testing highlighted the importance of piloting with CHWs to ensure clarity of wording of questions, interviewer training to maximise inter-rater reliability and the provision of guidance to applicants in advance of any selection events. Trade-offs between the different components of selection process utility are also likely to be required. Further refinements and evaluation of predictive validity (i.e. a sixth stage of development) would be recommended before roll-out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Journal of Reproductive Health is the property of Women's Health & Action Research Centre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of leaders' abusive supervision on employees' work engagement in the health sector. The study further examined the interactive effect of leaders' abusive supervision and employees' proactive personality on work engagement via employees' silence. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 343 health workers in five hospitals in Ghana. The Hayes Process Macro and AMOS were used to analyse mediation, moderation and moderated-mediation relationships Findings: The study findings indicate that leaders' abusive supervision has a detrimental impact on employees' work engagement. The study further found that employees' silence did not mediate the relationship between abusive supervision and work engagement. Employees' proactive personalities positively moderated the relationship between abusive supervision and employees' silence. Originality/value: This study advances understanding of how perceived leaders' abusive supervision affects health workers' work engagement. This study contributes to the literature by confirming employees' silence as a pathway linking abusive supervision to work engagement. The study further identifies employees' proactive personality as a moderating variable in the relationship between abusive supervision and employees' silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study examined the influence of servant leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) of employees in Ghana through the intervening roles of public service motivation (PSM) and the length of time spent with the leader. Design/methodology/approach: A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 328 randomly sampled respondents within the six metropoles in Ghana for data analysis. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to address the hypotheses of the study. Findings: The study found that servant leadership has a significant positive influence on OCB and PSM. The study also found that PSM significantly and positively influences OCB. The study finally established that whiles PSM significantly mediated the relationship between servant leadership and OCB, the length of time spent with leaders did not moderate the servant leadership and OCB nexus. Practical implications: The study implies that stakeholders in the local government sector, such as the Local Government Service Board, should emphasise employing or promoting supervisors who are servant leadership-driven to occupy key positions within the local government structure. Efforts could also be made to train the supervisors to acquire servant leadership traits. Originality/value: The results from the study provide significant insights on how the public sector in Ghana and beyond can identify, develop and maintain servant leaders to promote employees OCB. Also, being a pioneering study in Ghana, the results and recommendations from the study have set the pace for future scholars to discuss issues that engulf the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed at identifying if engaged employees mediate the relationship between leader behaviour and employee task performance within the public sector in a developing country with unique cultural characteristics. Data gathered from 411 permanent employees was analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Results showed that employee engagement mediates partially the relationship between transformational leader behaviour and employee task performance unlike the relationship between transactional leader behaviour and employee task performance. Transformational leader behaviour was identified as the key leader behaviour that causes employees to be engaged. Practical and managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acculturation begins when people find themselves in a cultural setting other than theirs, and to demonstrate acceptable behaviors, one of two strategies is adopted: adapting to the new environment or retain one's own culture. On the basis of these two, four strategies have been proposed. The current article examined the moderation effect of two of these acculturation strategies, integration and separation, on the relationship between newcomer adjustment, and work-related anxiety and turnover intentions. The study was in two folds, the first explored the moderation effect among new employees in general, notwithstanding their immediate past working experience; and the second part separated the sample based on two criteria: those prior to their current role were working in another firm (work-to-work employees) and those who just come directly from school (school-to-work employees). The sample was made up of 250 employees who had spent not less than 6 months and not more than 12 months in their current role, drawn from the private banking and insurance firms in Ghana. The PROCESS analysis of the data revealed that integration moderated the relationship between newcomer adjustment and work-related anxiety and turnover intentions among all samples. Separation moderated the relationships in all cases, but for the relationship between newcomer adjustment and turnover intentions in study 1 and among school-to-work employees. The evidence from this article points to the fact that the acculturation strategy that newcomers adopt has an effect on the relationship between their level of adjustment and some organizational outcomes; however, a slight difference exists if their immediate past engagement is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) co-epidemic continues to increase globally. Low-and middle-income countries bear the highest burden of co-epidemic, and Ghana is no exception. In 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) responded to this global challenge by launching a collaborative framework with a view to guide countries in implementing their DM and TB care, prevention and control plans. Subsequently, several countries, including Ghana, adopted this framework and began implementing bidirectional screening of TB and DM patients. Almost a decade later since the launch of the framework, the implementation of bidirectional screening in Ghana has not been subjected to empirical research. This study explored the barriers and facilitators to bidirectional screening through the lenses of the implementing healthcare workers. Methods: This was an exploratory qualitative study conducted in three public health facilities offering both TB and DM services in Northern Ghana. In-depth interviews, document review and observations, were used to generate data. In total twenty-three healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, prescriber, health managers and TB task- shifting officers delivering care in TB and DM clinics) were interviewed, using semi-structured interview guides. The interview questions solicited information on the screening process, including knowledge of the collaborative framework, comorbidity, collaboration and workload. Results: Six themes emerged from the analysis, of which two (Increase in staff capacity, and Institutionalisation of bidirectional screening) were facilitators, and four (Delays in screening, Fear and stigmatization of TB, Poor collaboration between TB and DM units, and Skewed funding for screening) were barriers. Conclusions: The implementation of bidirectional screening at public health facilities in Ghana was evident in this study and increased staff capacity, funding and institutionalisation enhanced the policy implementation process. However, the screening of TB patients for DM is yet to be prioritised, and emphasis should be put on the design for cost-effective screening approaches for low- and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors influencing knowledge sharing in a public sector institution in Ghana. A case study of the factors influencing knowledge sharing among employees at Afigya Kwabre District Assembly in the Ashanti Region of Ghana was used as the research design. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample. A semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. The study found mutual trust, respect and care for one another, the quest for organizational success, education and experience level of employees as the significant factors influencing knowledge sharing in the Afigya Kwabre District Assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Recent efforts to modernise public sector institutions have led to the adoption of performance management systems worldwide. The belief in performance management is that information generated can be used to help individuals improve themselves in terms of what they do in their organisations, which will subsequently impact positively on the organisation. An instrument for collecting performance information (PI) is performance appraisal (PA). Since the early 1990s, the Ghanaian government has attempted to develop a systematic appraisal system as a strategy to obtain PI in the civil service (CS). In spite of this, the CS continues to perform below expectations despite individuals getting promoted every year. What has been the effect of PA in the CS? How has the collected information been utilised to improve performance? What are the main barriers to the use of PI, and what practices can be put in place that might encourage the effective collection of PI and its use in the CS? We argue that the PA system is much ado about nothing. In analysing why this is so, we will look at the impediments that continue to affect the collection and usage of PI and to suggest ways that will help improve the system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study conducted to analyze the impact of the mobile phone usage by the workers at Omega Beverages Ltd., in Ghana, on their work productivity. The study was conducted by using a questionnaire having open and closed questions that was given to 30 out of 40 employees of various ranks. It is informed that 86.7 percent employees claimed that cell phone usage does not affect their work output. However, considerable amount of work time was used in phone usage.

Social Capital is a concept that describes good quality social relations that can lead to mutual benefit. The fundamental proposition of social capital theory is that networks of relationships grant access to resources, especially information benefits not available to non-members of the network. This study assessed the functions of social capital within Ghanaian organizations, described the patterns and determinants of social capital use within organizations and explored how social capital contributes to firm performance using a sample frame of firms listed in the Ghana Club 100. A questionnaire field survey supplemented by personal interviews was chosen as the most appropriate design for this investigation. Employees were sampled across the organizational hierarchy based on their responsibilities held, positions, type of relationship held with others within the organisation. Data was also collected on the demographic characteristics and organisational dynamics. The results showed that social capital is critical to knowledge sharing in the Ghanaian organization; that it helps to get things done and helps in the attainment of organisational objectives. The findings also suggested that three determinate variables of social capital: reciprocity, trust and institutional ties, have the most significant positive relationship with organisational performance. In view of that, the study recommends that firms take a proactive approach towards promoting, building and maintaining viable social networks within their structures in order to derive maximum benefit from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common feature of African societies is that individuals belong to kin groups which impose reciprocal obligations upon their members. While kin groups are found in other societies, African kin groups are distinctive both by their ubiquity and by the strength of their claims upon members. The article also summarizes current economic interpretations of kin groups as insurance and transfer institutions which succeed in lowering transactions costs in the traditional, small scale economy. However, in the modern economy, where large scale production is required, firms must employ multiple kin groups. The resulting employment relations between managers and workers differ from those in which the basic unit is the individual employee. Kin groups will attempt to favour their own members in the assignment of good jobs. A kin group may be restrained in its favoritism either by competition from rival kin groups or by promotion practices imposed by top management. Even though kin group favoritism may be rife, it is not readily observable on conventional labor market data sets. Although one utilizes an unusually rich Ghanaian data set, it still does not provide direct evidence enabling to test whether managers favor workers from their own kin group.