Organizational social context in primary health care

Abstract

The recognition and assessment of organizational social context (culture, climate and morale) is particularly valuable in primary health care. Both culture and climate have been shown to be associated with work morale and to predict job satisfaction, organizational commitment and voluntary turnover of employees in nursing. This study aims to describe the social contexts of primary health care centers from the viewpoint of health care professionals. A descriptive study using an organizational social context instrument for data collection was undertaken. From 29 teams in 18 public primary care centers of one Lithuanian county, 344 health care professionals participated. The results of the study show that different organizational cultures, climates and levels of morale existed in primary health care centers, at both team and organizational levels. The differences between teams were significant in terms of culture rigidity and resistance. Climate differences were found at both team and organization levels in regard to stress and functionality. A variance of about 7% in work morale was seen in teams and organizations. Managers should recognize the different kinds of social contexts in which teams work, in order to enable them to co-work efficiently in evidence-based primary care settings.