Measuring health workers' motivation composition: validation of a scale based on Self-Determination Theory in Burkina Faso.
Lohmann, Julia;
Souares, Aurélia;
Tiendrebéogo, Justin;
Houlfort, Nathalie;
Robyn, Paul Jacob;
Somda, Serge MA;
De Allegri, Manuela;
(2017)
Measuring health workers' motivation composition: validation of a scale based on Self-Determination Theory in Burkina Faso.
HUMAN RESOURCES FOR HEALTH, 15 (1).
33-.
ISSN 1478-4491
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-017-0208-1
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BACKGROUND: Although motivation of health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has become a topic of increasing interest by policy makers and researchers in recent years, many aspects are not well understood to date. This is partly due to a lack of appropriate measurement instruments. This article presents evidence on the construct validity of a psychometric scale developed to measure motivation composition, i.e., the extent to which motivation of different origin within and outside of a person contributes to their overall work motivation. It is theoretically grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1142 nurses in 522 government health facilities in 24 districts of Burkina Faso. We assessed the scale's validity in a confirmatory factor analysis framework, investigating whether the scale measures what it was intended to measure (content, structural, and convergent/discriminant validity) and whether it does so equally well across health worker subgroups (measurement invariance). RESULTS: Our results show that the scale measures a slightly modified version of the SDT continuum of motivation well. Measurements were overall comparable between subgroups, but results indicate that caution is warranted if a comparison of motivation scores between groups is the focus of analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The scale is a valuable addition to the repository of measurement tools for health worker motivation in LMICs. We expect it to prove useful in the quest for a more comprehensive understanding of motivation as well as of the effects and potential side effects of interventions intended to enhance motivation.