Challenges of Measuring a Faculty Member Activity in Medical Schools

One of the features of Mission Based Management is measuring the activities of faculty members and departments and their contributions to the school's mission. As it is important to assess the school's readiness for such a system, in this study we assessed the view points of Tehran Medical School's department chairs about faculty members’ activities. We used focus group technique to identify participant's view points. We divided 30 department chairs into homogenous groups of 4-6. After a brief introduction, the moderator presented questions to determine the participant's idea and a secretary recorded them. We categorized view points into main themes and subthemes. Ninety three percent of chairs participated in the sessions. Department chair's view points were categorized into 3 main themes: "system is effective and important", "system is effective and important but some challenges should be considered" and "system is ineffective and should not be implemented". Subthemes included chair's concerns, views, fears and reasons. The results of the study provided reliable information about department chair's concerns and reactions to this system. Finally, we determined points of strengths and anticipated threats for developing a faculty member activity measurement system.