Effect of open book management and teamwork on productivity among staff of teaching hospitals in Southeast Nigeria

Background: Open book management (OBM) is a style of management in which employees learn about an organizational operation, contribute to it, and get rewarded for meeting financial targets. A method of running an organization in which the information received by employees should not only help them operate effectively but also assist them to understand how the company is run. Objectives: The aim of this article is to determine the effect of OBM and teamwork on productivity among staff in public tertiary hospital in Southeast Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analytic study was done among 500 staff of 5 public tertiary hospitals in Southeast Nigeria. The respondents were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Information obtained includes sociodemographic profile, staff disposition, knowledge of hospital policy and management, level of cooperation among staff, level of teamwork, productivity, and employees’ job satisfaction, and these were assessed using 5-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0; chi-square and Pearson’s correlations were used to test the level of relationship. Results: Five hundred respondents participated in the study. All respondents had tertiary education; 38.8% had work experience ranging from 1 to 5 years, whereas 61.2% had more than 5 years of experience. About 53% of the respondents at least agreed that there is transparency in information flow in the hospital with a response score of more than 3.0. The practice of teamwork had a response rate of less than 3.0. More than 60% of the respondents attested to a lack of teamwork. The response score of organizational productivity was 3.78, with 74.8% of the respondents at least agreeing that the institutions are productive in their activities. Conclusion: Teamwork is lacking in our health institutions and affects organizational productivity of teaching hospitals. Hence, workplace harmony should be encouraged in order to improve productivity.