Mentoring and organisational constraints as predictors of attitudes to work in the Nigerian public health sector.

The present study examines work attitudes in the public health sector using the relative impact of mentoring and organisational constraints on job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Data was collected from 161 employees in a large government-owned hospital in south western Nigeria. Results of the hierarchical regression analysis (which controlled for the effects of relevant covariates) showed that when informal mentoring and perceived organisational constraints were entered in the second step, R2 for organisational commitment and job satisfaction increased from .17 to .45 (p = < .001), and from .15 to .49 (p = < .001), respectively. These findings suggest that work attitudes in the public health sector can be improved by facilitating mentoring relationships and removing organisational obstacles. The implications of these findings for policy formulation and effective health care delivery are explained.