Psychological well-being and job performance amidst covid-19: A multi-group analysis of rural and urban health workers in Ghana

Abstract

The onset of COVID-19 has caused a paradigm shift in individual and firm activities. Throughout this pandemic, health workers have been highly engaged in a range of activities from educating people about the pandemic to vaccinating the populace. While Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) have been provided for their physical well-being and financial incentives given to motivate them, little has been heard about their psychological well-being and how this has affected their performance. This quantitative study, guided by the post-positivist paradigm was therefore conducted to assess the levels of psychological well-being and job performance of nurses and midwives in rural and urban hospitals. Also, the influence of their psychological well-being on job performance was ascertained. The Job-Demands Resource (JD-R) theory and Self-Determination theory formed the basis for this study. Questionnaire items were adapted from standardized scales to collect data. Psychological well-being was measured as a second order construct with six dimensions (autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations, purpose in life and self-acceptance). The stratified random technique was used to retrieve a total of 262 questionnaires for the analyses. PLS algorithm and multi-group analysis were used to investigate the hypothesized relationships. The findings indicated that psychological well-being and job performance were high in both hospitals. Also, psychological well-being influenced job performance in both hospitals. Lastly, the study found that the influence of psychological well-being on job performance in urban health workers was relatively higher than the influence of psychological well-being on job performance in the rural sample. Practical implications and directions for future research have been provided.