Organizational culture in nursing wards of hospitals in Tehran, Iran

 Nursing wards’ organizational culture is related to nurses’ performance, quality of nursing care and patients’ satisfaction. This study aimed to examine the organizational culture of nursing wards. This descriptive and cross sectional study was conducted in 18 hospitals in Tehran, Iran. The organizational culture questionnaire with 32 questions covering 8 dimensions (i.e., attention to details, customer-oriented, team working, creativity, risk taking, coherence, power distance and short/long- oriented) was completed by 244 nurses. Data was analyzed using SPSS-V20 software and by applying descriptive statistics, Pearson test, one-way ANOVA and multivariate regression. The mean score of nursing wards’ culture was 3.60 out of 6 (Moderate). The highest and lowest scores in organizational culture were observed in social security hospitals (3.75) and public hospitals (3.53), respectively. The highest and lowest scores were related to attention to details (4.24) and risk taking (3.07) dimensions of organizational culture, respectively. Seeking nurses’ new ideas, doing tasks in teams, a spirit of creativity among nurses and considering change as an opportunity for improvement had the most effect on nursing wards’ culture.  The hospital ownership type was associated with team working, creativity and short/long- oriented dimensions of organizational culture (p<0.05). Nurses’ attention to details was increased by increasing the hospital beds (p<0.05). Senior nurses paid more attention to details and married nurses were more team oriented (p<0.05). A moderate organizational culture was reported in nursing wards of Tehran hospitals. Nurse administrators should strengthen nursing wards’ organizational culture, especially the risk-taking, creativity, coherence and team working dimensions.