Developing the Model of Researchers Satisfaction with Research Management System: A Case Study in a Military Medical University

Abstract

Background and Aim: Investigating the dimensions and components of research management satisfaction can identify appropriate executive solutions for the qualitative and quantitative enhancement of research projects. The purpose of the present study was to provide an appropriate theoretical and practical framework for evaluating satisfaction with research management and its application for evaluating researchers' satisfaction in a selected military medical university. Methods: The present study was an applied study in terms of purpose and was a mixed qualitative-quantitative study in terms of methodology. In the first step, the main dimensions and components of researchers' satisfaction with research management extracted using literature review and expert opinion survey. In the second step, a structured questionnaire designed and standardized to measure the satisfaction of researchers in each of these dimensions. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to assess the content validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha used to assess questionnaire reliability. Finally, the questionnaire distributed randomly among 150 researchers and faculty members of a military medical university. The relationship between satisfaction with demographic and occupational characteristics of the respondents evaluated by ANOVA at SPSS-16 software. Results: Six dimensions and 15 components were identified to measure satisfaction with the research management system. The main dimensions of measuring satisfaction with research management included research leadership, capacity building, creating hope, organizational communication, research organization, and resource allocation. The highest satisfaction was related to creating hope (2.71±0.82) and the least satisfaction was related to resource allocation (1.79±0.31). There was no statistically significant relationship between demographic and occupational variables of respondents and satisfaction with research management (P>0.05). Conclusion: Given that the least satisfaction of the researchers were in two dimensions of resource allocation and capacity building, it is recommended that research managers pay more attention to equitable distribution of resources in addition to creating new resources and developing financial and non-financial research capacities simultaneously.