An Assessment of the Characteristics of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in Compliance with Standards of a Learning Organization

The purpose of this study was to assess the amount of compatibility of organizational properties and principles in Zanjan Univsersity of Medical Sciences with the established standards from both the staff and managers’ point of view. Peter Senge Assessment Characteristics of Learning Organization (personal mastery, shared vision, mental models, team learning and system approach) was used for this goal. This descriptive-survey was carried out on 360 employees and managers out of 5693 persons. A questionnaire of 25 items was used to collect the data. Then, the data was analyzed using T- test, single group T- test and Anova. The underlying hypothesis was that from the perspective of managers and employees of Zanjan Medical University, this university has a good condition concerning standards of a learning organization. Testing this hypothesis revealed that there was a difference in the present and a favorable condition. Meanwhile, the obtained means for personal mastery, shared vision, mental models, team learning and system approach had a significant relationship with the predicted mean. Our results indicated that some of the features of learning organization in Zanjan Medical University are not satisfactory or in accordance with the standard values. Moreover, the mean difference in managers and employees pointed out the relationship was significant as to mental models and system approach. This finding puts that the managers’ status concerning" mental models” and “system approach” is better than the employees’. The means difference in the males and females in mental models were also statistically significant. The results showed that in mental models of Feature of Learning Organization in the males was higher than the females. Level of education did not have specific effect on the employees’ functioning or other aspects of learning organization. Also, duration of work history in terms of years did not have any effect on the employees’ functioning in different aspects of learning organization.