Investigating the Relationship between Organizational Social Capital and Service Quality in Teaching Hospitals

Problem statement: In modern age, the service quality and sensitivity towards better qualified service are among the priorities of the global community. Quality is defined as the customer’s desire and the customer’s perceptions and expectations constitute the key factor determining quality. The issue of quality is particularly important in healthcare service. Nowadays, alongside the human, financial and economic capitals, a new form of capital entitled social capital is being utilized. Social capital may influence the service quality. Facilitating science and improving team work and organizational commitment would probably translate into better quality of products and social capital encompasses all these issues. Approach: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study conducted in educational hospitals of Tabriz, Iran in 2010. The target community consists of workers working in educational hospitals of Tabriz and patients referring to these hospitals. A total of 320 workers and 320 patients were selected for the study. Our data collection tool consisted of two questionnaires which were distributed among the participants after their validity and reliability were established. Once the questionnaires were completed, the statistical coefficients relating to the types of variables (t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and analysis of variance) were calculated and analyzed using SPSS software version 16. Results: Our findings indicate that there is a significant, positive relationship between organizational social capital and the service quality from the patients’ point of view, with the correlation between the two variables on a strong level (r = 0.6, p<0.001). Regression analysis results indicate that the five dimensions of social capital account for 0.88% of the variance in service quality equation and the variable relationship among workers in social networks is the most influential factor on service quality in the study population; this factor accounts for 0.59% of the variation in service quality. Conclusion: The existence of a significant relationship between the dimensions of social capital and service quality highlights the importance of social capital of workers in the organization.