Abstract

INDIVIDUAL BARRIERS TO DOING RESEARCH AMONG NONFACULTY STAFF OF AHVAZ JUNDISHAPOUR UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES

Abdolreza Gilavand, Alireza Dadgarinejad*, Mino Pezhman

Abstract

Introduction: Given the role of research activities in identifying problems of organizations and considering the positive impact research activities have on non-faculty staff’s annual evaluation, Methods: this research was conducted to evaluate these employees' individual barriers to doing research. This cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2014 to examine the problems of 713 non-faculty employees of Ahvaz Jundishapour University of medical and health services regarding their individual barriers to writing articles. Random cluster sampling was used for data collection using a questionnaire based on Lickert’s scale. Results: From a total of the employees surveyed, 335 (47 percent) were employed officially, 270(38%) were employed based on a permanent contract, and 106 (15%) were employed based on temporary contracts. 420(59%) were males, and 292 (41%) were females. The main barriers to research in terms of the average scores obtained included: lack of time and being too busy with 2905 points percent; family responsibilities with 2,890 points; not enough credits career promotion with 2,886 points; not being fluent in English for using English resources 2,878 points; In this study, only "individual barriers” were examined. Further and more precise research is necessary to check other obstacles including financial barriers, strategic, educational, professional, cultural, social, organizational management, political and scientific factors should also considered. Conclusion: Therefore, removing these barriers calls for the due attention of the university officials. It is also necessary to make arrangements for teaching research methods during and after school and to assign an important role to research in job promoting.

Keywords: personal barriers, research, staff, university, Ahvaz, Iran.