Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background and Aim: Hospitals are among the most interactive organizations in which the rate of knowledge transfer and learning is considerably high. Comparison of the level of organizational learning between public and private hospitals can be useful for managers to select organizational learning strategies aiming at improving service delivery and organizational behavior.

  Material and Method: This cross-sectional survey was conducted by participating 200 nurses, selected randomly from 7 public and 3 private hospitals at initial stage. They fulfilled the questionnaire, and then the researchers calculated sample size based on the collected data. Finally, 260 other samples were selected from 7 public and 5 private hospitals. Factor analysis and mean comparison were used to analyze data.

  Results: The findings showed that in private hospitals, the levels of 4 organizational learning capabilities (managerial commitment, system perspective, openness and experimentation, and knowledge transfer and integration) were significantly higher than pubic hospital. But, all organizational learning capabilities in both public and private hospitals were below the expected average. “Knowledge transfer and integration” and “managerial commitment” had the highest and the lowest average, respectively in both public and private hospitals and in overall.

  Conclusion: With due attention to the fact that “knowledge transfer and integration” had the highest average in both public and private hospitals, we suggest that organizational knowledge and other capabilities of the nurses and other personnel could be increased by using this capability.