Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: The most important principles in an organization are continuous development and survival. Nowadays, creativity and innovation are vital for survival in a competitive world. The thinking style of a manager in an organization is an important factor in his/her creativity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between thinking style and organizational innovation in 84 senior and junior managers of Shiraz educational hospitals in 2008.

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study 84 top and mid-level managers of Shiraz teaching hospitals were selected by the census method. Data were collected using two standard questionnaires, one for thinking style and one for innovation, the content validity and reliability of which had been confirmed. A preliminary test showed the Cronbach's alpha for the thinking style and organizational questionnaires to be 0.83 and 0.72, respectively. Data analysis was performed using Spearman correlation test.

Results: The Spearman correlation analysis showed a statistically significant, although weak, relationship between thinking style of senior and junior managers of Shiraz teaching hospitals and their organizational innovation. A pragmatic thinking style had the strongest association with organizational innovation.

Conclusion: The thinking style of a teaching hospital manager plays a vital role in his/her creativity. No thinking style is particularly preferred any thinking style may give desirable results as regards creativity of a manger, depending on the circumstances and conditions.