Resumo

URDANETA QUINTERO, Omar Ramón; PEREZ LUGO, Jorge Ernesto; URDANETA QUINTERO, Milagros del Valle  e  LOPEZ FERRER, Patricia Carolina. Organizational culture in health research institutes at the University of Zulia. Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.2, pp.269-279. ISSN 1315-9518.

The objective of the study was to determine what type of organizational culture exists in research institutes in the health area at the University of Zulia. Organizational principles, decision making and resistance to change were considered. Descriptive, field, trans-sectional research was carried out; a questionnaire with a Likert-type scale was applied using surveys validated by five specialists as having a reliability of 0.95. Results were analyzed through descriptive statistics (average), where 54.76% felt committed to the organizational principles, 57.53% reported the absence of workshops for creating ideas for decision making and finally, 64.81% indicated that changing ways of carrying out tasks is a waste of time. Conclusions were that a weak organizational culture exists, which does not integrate the personnel according to the objectives the institution pursues; also, that inadequate training of personnel to fulfill their functions makes decision making difficult, due to which changes are not accepted at the required moment. In this sense, the challenge remains for higher education institutions to incentivize the disappearance of orthodox postures in the organizational culture, transforming it into one that is stronger, more participative and less resistant to change.

Palavras-chave : Organizational culture; research institutes; organizational principles decision making; resistance to change.