The Impact of Sick Role Behaviour on Health and Productivity of Bankers in Nigeria

Abstract

The revolution that took place in the Nigerian banking industry in the 80's, came with re-engineering and a shift in focus. This was necessitated by deposit drive especially after consolidation through mergers and acquisition in 2004. This led to rat-race and unhealthy rivalry among many banks affecting bankers' sick role behaviour in staying off work in time of illness, seeking medical attention to attend to their health and cooperating with medical professionals to get well. This paper investigates the impact of sick role behaviour on the health and productivity of bankers in Nigeria. The objective of the study is to know if, sick role behaviour of bankers in the industry affects their health and productivity at work. The study was conducted in ten commercial banks in Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria in which, 200 participants selected through multi-stage sampling method were included. Information was retrieved through administration of structured questionnaire, while formulated hypotheses were tested using Chi-squared statistical tool. The result showed that, (85.0%) of the participants in the study had fallen sick on the job previously while (76.5%) of those that had been sick on the job previously, sought medical care with medical professionals. Further result from the study also revealed that, (47.1%) of the participants handled official duties while they were sick instead of staying of work completely. A significant relationship was found between sick role behaviour of participants and their health with a p value of (0.046), and between participants' sick role behaviour and their productivity at work with a p value (0.039). The study strongly recommends that banks in Nigeria should allow their employees assume their sick role behaviour when they fall sick in order for them to get well in time and avoid poor productivity at work.