Hva betyr en organisasjons verdier i praksis? En studie om organisasjonsverdier og verdibevissthet i et helseforetak

Abstract

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the significance of Sykehuset Innlandet’s values for the unit leaders in the mental health care division and whether the values are practiced at unit level in practice. Do values affect leaders' value awareness and are leaders faithful to the organization's values in its decisions? This raises the following issues: To what extent do leaders believe that the organization's values are practiced at the unit level? To what extent are managers aware of value and how is the relationship between managers' value awareness and managers' assessment of the unit's patient safety culture and users' involvement at the individual and service levels?

Einar Aadland (2004) defines values as follows: "Values are desirable qualities of actions or objects." Chester Bernard (1938) was one of the first theorists to argue that implementing values in an organization is a management task, which is later defined as value-based leadership.

Quantitative method is chosen as the approach to the study. In order to find answers to the above problem, a cross-sectional study has been carried out. A questionnaire has been sent out to all the unit leaders in the mental health care division of Inland Hospital. The response rate is 37.5, which means that 24 of 64 unit managers responded to the survey.

The survey shows that the managers largely believe that the organization's values are exercised in practice and that, especially in relation to the value of security, there is a correspondence between the managers' assessment of the value and the degree to which it is exercised in practice. For value quality, there is a greater distance between the importance of value and its execution in practice. The managers are largely value conscious, and the result shows that there is a moderate to strong correlation between the managers 'value awareness and the managers' assessment of the unit's patient safety culture. The study has some key findings that it may be relevant for the organization to work on, and which may be relevant for further research in the field of health care.