The Influence of Work Engagement to Individual Performance in Muhammadiyah Hospitals, Doctor of Research in Management Thesis Defense by Agus Samsudin
Public welfare goes hand in hand with the nation’s hospital system. This statement now bears a strong impact as the pandemic hits globally, including in Indonesia. The number of hospitals in the modern era is far more than it used to be, though it should also be noted that the demand for hospital care has risen significantly.
The history of hospitals in Indonesia closely relates to the establishment of non-profit hospitals owned by organizations. However, as time goes on, the growth of private hospitals has surpassed public hospitals in Indonesia. There are more private hospitals whereas non-profit and public hospitals have suffered a decrease.
What’s interesting is the fact that non-profit hospitals owned by religious organizations like Muhammadiyah remain stable. Surely this means that Muhammadiyah hospitals and other non-profit healthcare facilities must increase their operations and management efficiency in order to thrive in this tough competition. Moreover, with the dynamic changes caused by the Social Security Administrator for Health (BPJS) system, there needs to be certain internal modifications.
This topic was further discussed by Dr. Mohammad Agus Samsudin on his thesis for BINUS BUSINESS SCHOOL – Doctor of Research in Management program. For his final thesis defense as a student of S3 BINUS University, Dr. Agus Samsudin presented his thesis titled “The Influence of Work Engagement Antecedent to Manager Performance in Muhammadiyah Hospitals” in front of a team of promoters and examiners led by Prof. Dr. Ir. Harjanto Prabowo, M.M on Monday, March 8, 2021.
Internal challenges faced by Muhammadiyah hospitals
Based on a survey in 2018, the biggest internal challenges within the Muhammadiyah hospitals are digitalization, business perception, finance, and management capabilities. The survey also stated that the keys to a successful business, in this case a healthcare business, consisted of customer satisfaction, effective communication, and employee engagement. As the engagement rate drops, hospital productivity and service quality will collapse.
These findings led Dr. Agus Samsudin to perform a deeper analysis on the importance of engagement within the managerial system of Muhammadiyah hospitals. In this topic, Dr. Agus stated that the engagement concept referred to engagement towards the organization itself, rather than engagement towards the job position.
The influence of organizational culture on hospital performance
Dr. Agus conducted quantitative research and a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in order to prove his hypotheses on his S3 BINUS University final thesis. From 587 survey respondents, he found that six of the hypotheses were significant, whereas one hypothesis was deemed insignificant. Dr. Agus had managed to prove that work engagement influenced individual work performance.
Meanwhile, work engagement was evidently influenced by authentic leadership (career development, rewards & awards), trust, social media usage, and organizational culture. Authentic leadership also influenced trust within the organization. However, Dr. Agus found that trust did not bring any impact on individual performance. Previous research had shown that the insignificance of trust towards individual performance was due to several factors. Hospitals, in general, operate based on strict regulations, where all staff must have related medical competencies. Additionally, the BPJS system and standard procedure are among these factors.
To conclude the thesis for his study at Doctor of Research in Management at S3 BINUS University, Dr. Agus explained that Muhammadiyah hospitals should establish Muhammadiyah culture as an integral part of the system. Social media could also be a great tool to strengthen work engagement. Most importantly, this research is still relevant with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Dr. Agus. The relevance can be seen mainly through the three aspects of Dr. Agus’s thesis: organizational culture (support from the organization in terms of medical device procurement), work engagement (compliance to payroll deductions), and individual work performance (healthcare innovation such as telemedicine). ** (PID)
