Evaluating the organisational climate in Italian public healthcare institutions by means of a questionnaire.
BACKGROUND
By means of the ICONAS project, the Healthcare Agency of an Italian Region developed, and used a standardised questionnaire to quantify the organisational climate. The aims of the project were (a) to investigate whether the healthcare institutions were interested in measuring climate, (b) to estimate the range of applicability and reliability of the instrument, (c) to analyse the dimensions of climate among healthcare personnel, (d) to assess the differences among employees with different contractual positions.


METHODS
The anonymous questionnaire containing 50 items, each with a scale from 1 to 10, was offered to the healthcare organisations, to be compiled during ad hoc meetings. The data were sent to the central project coordinator. The differences between highly specialised staff (mostly physicians) and other employees were assessed after descriptive statistical analysis of the single items. Both Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis were used.


RESULTS
Ten healthcare organisations agreed to participate. The questionnaire was completed by 8691 employees out of 13202. The mean value of organisational climate was 4.79 (range 1-10). There were significant differences among single items and between the 2 groups of employees. Multivariate methods showed: (a) one principal component explained > 40% of the variance, (b) 7 factors summarised the data.


CONCLUSIONS
Italian healthcare institutions are interested in assessing organisational phenomena, especially after the reforms of the nineties. The instrument was found to be applicable and suitable for measuring organisational climate. Administration of the questionnaire leads to an acceptable response rate. Climate can be described by means of 7 underlying dimensions.
Wienand
Ulrich
U
Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Ferrara Arcispedale S. Anna, corso Giovecca 203, Ferrara, Italy. u.wienand@gmx.com
Cinotti
Renata
R
Nicoli
Augusta
A
Bisagni
Miriam
M
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D004649:Employee Incentive Plans; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006272:Health Facility Environment / Q000592:standards*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000592:standards*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017749:Total Quality Management; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*