Analysis of the importance-performance of drivers of employee creativity in medical universities

Considering the importance of creativity and in order to make the optimal use of medical universities to fulfill their missions, the present study was conducted to analyze the importance-performance drivers of staff creativity in medical universities.

This study was a quantitative-qualitative study in which the importance-performance approach was used. In the present study, 10 experts in the field of resource management, human development and psychology, as well as 83 human resource managers of medical universities in the country were present. Data were collected using a questionnaire which was initially prepared using library resources and previous models. Then, according to the opinion of the participating experts, common factors were eliminated and finally, 10 factors were obtained as drivers of creativity. After that, quantitative indicators were determined for the identified factors, and the final questionnaire with 28 questions was provided for the human resources managers of the universities. Also, the content validity and construct validity of the questionnaire were calculated and confirmed. Internal consistency of the questionnaire was also obtained using Cronbachchr('39')s alpha. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the importance of the factors was extracted, and in the end, the indicators were placed in the significance-performance matrix.

The mean age of managers participating in the study was 46.35 years, and the average age of their management in the field of human resources was 5.43 years. Among the drivers of creativity, leadership style, organizational structure, individual factors, paving the way for creativity in the individual, and support of senior management with loads of 0.70, 0.68, 0.68, 0.67 and 0.65 are the most important factors, respectively. The results of one-sample t-test also showed that apart from the two components of work complexity and organizational culture, the average of other drivers is significant compared to the hypothetical average, and for managers, the situation of these factors in the organization is somewhat favorable.

Leadership style, organizational structure, individual factors, paving the way for creativity in the individual, and supporting senior management are effective and very important components in promoting and developing creativity in the health sector. In addition, for the optimal use of the creativity matrix, the type of organization and the importance-performance of each creativity strategy must be identified.