The relationship between management style and social responsibility at Tehran hospitals

Introduction: Nowadays, the success of a hospital administration is not only subject to taking care of hospital internal processes but also identifying the hospital concerns about external processes; that is, the social responsibility of hospitals. It seems one of the factors influencing the acceptance of social responsibility is the management style. This study is going to investigate the relationship between management style and social responsibility at Tehran hospitals. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2011. The study population included hospitals and academic medical centers affiliated to Tehran and Shahid Beheshti Universies of Medical Sciences; as well as private hospitals in Tehran (n=94). Census method was employed for collecting data. Tools for collecting data included two questionnaires related to determining the management style and assessing the social responsibility score of hospitals. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive parameters, independent t-test and Chi-square test using SPSS software version 16. Results: The mean score of social responsibility in the studied hospitals was 3.46. The mean score for marketplace, leadership and internal processes, environmental, workplace, and community policies were 3.69, 3.64, 3.4, 3.38 and 3.22, respectively. There was no significant difference between social responsibility score and type of ownership (P>0.05). The mean scores of management styles were not significantly different between public and private hospitals (P>0.05). Conclusion: Social accountability level of the studied hospitals was evaluated as average. To promote the social responsibility level, it is recommended appropriate measures to be taken for the policies of social responsibility, particularly in workplace and society and country policies.