The Alignment of Strategy and Performance: A Study on the Current

Abstract

With the increasing demands on health professionals as a result of the changing trends in health and health needs of populations, managing the performance of the available professionals is a necessity. Availability of highly trained public health professionals at the right place and time will not translate into meaningful public health outcomes if their performance is not managed. An important aspect of performance management is the alignment of organizational strategy to performance. The Health Policy (2011-2015) of the MOHSW outlined numerous strategies of public health concern which require the concerted efforts of all actors for their implementation. This research investigated the alignment of the public health strategies of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to the job of publichealth officers in The Gambia by examining the current system of managing their performance. A qualitative approach was used to collect data from public health officers and their supervisors from three of the six health regions of the Gambia. Relevant documents of the Ministry were also reviewed to gain more understanding of the performance management system. The results indicate that the performance of public health officers was not aligned to the strategy of MOHSW due to performance being largely based on knowledge gained from training or from experience through practice. Similarly, the manner their performance was managed was not ideal due to it not being based on defined standards and for the lack of the necessary tools required for an ideal system.