Investigating the Dimensions of Social Capital in Medical Universities (Case Study: Mazandaran)

Today, the health system is experiencing uncertain conditions in developed and developing countries. These conditions have been created in developing countries due to financial instability and lack of development and achievement of health standards, and in developed countries due to lack of achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In the last three decades, health care organizations, especially hospitals, have been transitioning from traditional to new methods. In today's world, health perspectives have a broader perspective and special attention has necessarily been paid to non-medical determinants of health. Each of these determinants, by themselves or through their influence on each other, strongly affects the state of health and causes injustices in the state of health. Social capital is one of the social determinants of health that has attracted much attention. The concept of social capital has been introduced as a multidimensional concept in the social sciences and is influential in many areas of society and has found a special place in the foundations related to development, so that some consider it a missing link in development. Arguing that people with high social capital are more inclined to live healthier and happier lives and to participate in social activities in communities. Social capital is often described as an intangible asset that can be a source of competitive advantage, value creation, and employees' desire to prioritize organizational interests over individual interests. Instead of emphasizing formal oversight and providing economic incentives, social capital increases flexibility in the organization and improves performance by emphasizing identity, organizational trust, and teamwork. Social capital is not a single issue; Rather, there are various types of categories that have two features in common; One is that they all involve an aspect of social construction, and the other is that they facilitate certain actions of the people who put them within the structure. Social capital, neither in individuals nor in the physical means of production; Rather, it is formed and developed in social relations. Social capital in fact refers to common ideals, social harmony and cohesion, trust, honesty and mutual respect of individuals towards each other, observance of values and norms and ethical principles, avoidance of any pretense in behavior. Social capital is one of the characteristics of social organizations that has been introduced to facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit and can be effective in fostering society and increasing social participation. Social capital theory describes the social resources in the workplace that enable employees to be effective in addition to influencing the resources available in the workplace. Social capital is very important for the strength of communities. In the past, many communities accepted social capital as the foundation and principle in their organizations, and social capital acted not only as the only social security network, but also as social support, which was clearly present in communities with Economic adequacy has been shown. Social capital is one of the social determinants of health that has attracted much attention. Therefore, in the present study, it seeks to study the dimensions of social capital in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and thus helps to expand the boundaries of existing knowledge in this field.

This research is mixed-survey in terms of method. The study population in the qualitative section included the president of the university, managers of the department, the director and managers of the eight vice-chancellors of the university and the dean of nine affiliated faculties of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, approximately 45 people, and in the quantitative part included the staff of the University of Medical Sciences. The number of health services in Mazandaran and its affiliated colleges was 2016. In the qualitative part, sampling was done by snowball sampling method and 20 people were selected and in the quantitative part, it was done by sampling multi-stage relative classes with Cochran's formula and 323 people. In this study, due to the fact that the data collection method was a researcher-made questionnaire, which consisted of two parts, including general questions and specialized questions (including 30 items). Delphi technique was used to analyze the data in the qualitative part and the structural equation method (SEM) and AMOS software were used in the quantitative part.

The results showed that the standard factor coefficient dimension of participation in the organization in explaining social capital, equal to 0.46, sense of security and trust equal to 0.71, identity equal to 0.75, requirements and expectations equal to 0.65, Empathy with the work environment is equal to 0.70, social cooperation in the real and virtual world is equal to 0.75, and the P-value is less than 0.05, the result that, from the perspective of those present in the study, these variables in explaining capital Are socially effective.

In general, it can be concluded that today social capital plays a much more important role than physical and human capital in organizations and communities and is cohesive between individuals and groups and organizations with social capital. Organizations with strong ties, shared norms and beliefs, trust and cooperation can be defined.