The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement in the Relationship between Affective Commitment to Change and Employee Performance in Selected Public Hospitals in Nigeria

Abstract

Public hospitals in Nigeria have faced considerable challenges, particularly when compared to healthcare institutions in other countries. The performance of public hospital employees in Nigeria has been a subject of scrutiny, with stakeholders consistently criticising the nation's healthcare system for its poor performance across various indicators. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to examine the effect of affective commitment to change on employee performance through employee engagement as a mediating variable in selected hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria. This study was conducted on 207 employees as the sample size. The data were gathered by survey method with questionnaire instruments and further analysed using Partial Least Square (PLS) techniques. The results of this study showed that there is a significant positive effect of affective commitment to change on employee performance. In addition, this study found that affective commitment to change has an indirect effect on employee performance, through employee engagement. This study recommends that healthcare management should acquire and develop great talent that will be engaged as one of the business strategies for managing change for employee performance.