Human resource mobilisation and management in health systems of Africa: a comparative study of health insurance scheme and health facilities in Ghana

Abstract

This paper analyses the human resource mobilisation and management in the health systems of Africa. It compares five health organisations from public-private sectors in terms of how they mobilise and manage human resources in the implementation of Ghana's health insurance scheme. It adds to comparative research on HRM practices and organisational culture in a developing world context. It makes two unique contributions: from public-private organisational perspectives and employees/workers and clients perspectives on HR practices to improve workers skills/knowledge and meet clients' health needs. A multi-actor research methodology was adopted with in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, on-site direct observations and documents with a sample size of 107. The results reveal some ironies in public-private organisational behaviour, faith-based, profit-client oriented styles of HRM practices and how such factors affect clients' access to services. It found organisations with more bureaucracies/red tape and professionalism were the least preferred as clients experienced more waiting times.