Y. L. Lok, Andrew L. Luk, Elsa S. W. Tsang, Raymond C. I. Chen
Abstract
One of the characteristics of the regional hospital under study is its century old culture of compassionate love, holistic care and teamwork. After the relocation of its locality in 1997, the hospital management maintains its heritage in providing quality health care services in the traditional spirit of compassionate love and team work. Continuous effort is made to establish the organizational culture that emphasizes the caring to its patients, staff and their families. With the aim to provide satisfying care through satisfied carers, the hospital had proactively created a caring and supportive working environment so that the staff could feel being cared for, empowered and entrusted. In this study, the current hospital culture was examined and cultural changes over time were also investigated. In addition, the relationships of the cultural perceptions and preferences to the staff demography were explored. The findings show that despite the management culture building effort, there were discrepancies between the perceived and desired cultures in the hospital. It also demonstrated that changes in perceived hospital culture had occurred across time. However, no significant differences between cultural perceptions and preferences were detected among staff groups of different background. It is suggested regular reviews should be conducted to monitor cultural developments in the organization.
Key words: Organizational culture