The Relevance of Herzberg’s two factors Theory in Retention of Human Resource for Health in Tanzania Public Hospitals

Abstract

Tanzania as many other developing countries has been affected by mass exodus of health staff from public hospitals in search of greener  pastures inside and outside the country. This has had an adverse effect on service delivery in public hospitals, which again prompted the  government to devise several means to ameliorate the situation. This paper examines the relevance of Herzberg two factor theories in  explaining retention of human resources for health (HRH) in public hospitals in Tanzania. It is argued in the paper that although both  intrinsic and extrinsic factors have positive influence on human resource retention, some factors do matter more than others. The  leading ones in the order of effect are working conditions, job security and salary. This is partly contributed by the fact that individual  employees respond to different contexts differently. It is recommended that policy makers and hospital administrators to initiate and  effectively implement HRH retention interventions based on both job and context related motivators in order to significantly address  causes of HRH unhealthy turnover.