title: Dimensions of Learning Organizations Questionnaire (DLOQ) in a low-resource health care setting in Nepal.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Knowledge-based organizations, such as health care systems, need to be adaptive to change and able to facilitate uptake of new evidence. To be able to assess organizational capability to learn is therefore an important part of health systems strengthening. The aim of the present study is to assess context using the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) in a low-resource health setting in Nepal.
  
  
  METHODS
  DLOQ was translated and administered to 230 employees at all levels of the hospital. Data was analyzed using non-parametric tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The DLOQ was able to detect variations across employee's perceptions of the organizational context. Nurses scored significantly lower than doctors on the dimension "Empowerment" while doctors scored lower than nurses on "Strategic leadership". These results suggest that the hospital's organization carries attributes of a centralized, hierarchical structure that might hinder a progress towards a learning organization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that, despite the designing and developing of the DLOQ in the USA and its main utilization in company settings, it can be used and applied in hospital settings in low-income countries. The application of DLOQ provides valuable insights and understanding when designing and evaluating efforts for healthcare improvement.
authors.forename: Mia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leufvén
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vitrakoti
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergström
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Ashish
authors.affiliation: International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. mats.malqvist@kbh.uu.se.
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Målqvist
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D009390:Nepal; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011203:Poverty; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*