Predictors of the level of personal involvement in an organization

BACKGROUND: The most important of the health system inputs, the performance and the benefits the system can deliver, depend largely upon the knowledge, skills, and motivation of those individuals responsible for delivering health services. PURPOSE: This article discusses a study that considered predictors of successful personal involvement in a health care organization. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The research included three independent variables (organizational culture, teamwork, and leadership) and one dependent variable (personal involvement). The sample included 734 respondents from 14 Slovene hospitals and three personnel categories: doctors, nurses, and non-health care professionals. FINDINGS: : The results of regression analysis have shown that the dependent variable "personal involvement" can be explained with four independent variables in 49.6% of cases, which are: teamwork (p < .001), level of education (p < .001), transformational leadership (p < .001), and transactional leadership (p = .004). The study has demonstrated that doctors, nurses, and non-health care professionals view their hospitals as having a culture of internal focus, stability, and control. All three groups viewed their level of personal involvement in the organizations as low, whereas nurses and non-health care professionals also expressed a sense of subordination to doctors. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: In addition to other predictors of personal involvement in an organization, which have been researched and confirmed in other studies, our study has also shown the level of education and transactional leadership to be a statistically significant predictor. Managers and leaders must accept responsibility for the existing results regarding personal involvement and start to work on interprofessional collaboration within the organization and outside of it.