title: Work motivation, task delegation and job satisfaction of general practice staff: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: Recent research has shown that a high degree of task delegation is associated with the practise staff's overall job satisfaction, and this association is important to explore since job satisfaction is related to medical as well as patient-perceived quality of care.
  
  
  
  This study aimed: (1) to investigate associations between degrees of task delegation in the management of chronic disease in general practice, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a case and the staff's work motivation, (2) to investigate associations between the work motivation of the staff and their job satisfaction.
  
  
  
  The study was based on a questionnaire to which 621 members of the practice staff responded. The questionnaire consisted of a part concerning degree of task delegation in the management of COPD in their respective practice and another part being about their job satisfaction and motivation to work.
  
  
  
  In the first analysis, we found that 'maximal degree' of task delegation was significantly associated with the staff perceiving themselves to have a large degree of variation in tasks, odds ratio (OR) = 4.26, confidence interval (CI) = 1.09, 16.62. In the second analysis, we found that this perceived large degree of variation in tasks was significantly associated with their overall job satisfaction, OR = 2.81, confidence interval = 1.71, 4.61.
  
  
  
  The results suggest that general practitioners could delegate highly complex tasks in the management of COPD to their staff without influencing the staff's work motivation, and thereby their job satisfaction, negatively, as long as they ensure sufficient variation in the tasks.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Helle
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Riisgaard
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Søndergaard
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Munch
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jette V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Section of Health Promotion and Health Services, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Loni
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ledderer
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.|Department of Business and Economics, COHERE - Centre of Health Economics Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Line B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nexøe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000628:therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Cross-sectional study; delivery of health care; general practice; job satisfaction; motivation; personnel delegation