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.

Background and Aim:  AIDS is a lethal disease, for which there is no treatment or any vaccine to prevent it. The injection-drug use and unprotected sexual behavior are two factors important  in HIV transmission. This study was conducted to determine changes in high-risk sexual and injection-drug use behaviors associated with HIV among drug users referring to Methadone Maintenance Treatment centers in Shiraz, Iran.

Materials and Methods: This before-after interventional study with no control group included drug-users (n=694) referring to all the 7 MMT centers in Shiraz, Iran in 2009. The data were collected by interviewing patients and using a questionnaire. The software used for data analysis was SPSS 15, the statistical test being the Wilcoxon test.

Results: The average age of the clients was 36.5 ± 9.5 years. Most of them were males (% 92.1) and single (% 43.1). 37.3 % of them being injection-drug users. The proportion of the injection-drug users having had at least one shared injection one week before referring to an MMT center was 23.3%, which decreased to 9.2% after one week. Analysis of the data also showed that 25.2% of the addicts had had at least one unprotected sexual contact during the previous month the proportion decreased to 21.0% one month after referring to an MMT center. The reductions in the mean numbers of both shared injections and unprotected sexual contacts were statistically significant (p <0.001).

Conclusion: Considering the effectiveness of the MMT centers in reducing risky behaviors of injection-drug users, it is essential to expand these centers at both the national and regional levels quantitatively and qualitatively and encourage drug-users to refer to them and seek help. This will help greatly in the prevention of HIV.