Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Organizational spirituality is a modern topic of discussion in the field of organizational behavior. Iran compared to the world has more spirituality level so the responsibility of the management researchers for using this value tools to solve organizational problems has decreased. Providing peace of mind alongside comfort and convenience for hospital staff greatly affects their competence and will naturally influence the quality of service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between spirituality and professional burnout among the hospital staff in Ardebil. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on the staff of Ardebil hospitals (3 public hospitals, 1 private hospital and 1 veterans’ hospital) selected by sampling. Data were collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and a Spiritual Leadership Questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed through Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient at 0.95. Finally, data were analyzed using the SPSS 20 software, t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests.

The results showed the mean of spiritual leadership among the staff of public, private and veterans’ hospitals to be 3.51 out of a possible 5, indicating a good spiritual condition. Spearman’s Rho test results showed a significant negative relationship between spiritual leadership and professional burnout of the staff (P < 0.05). Moreover, professional burnout among the subjects was calculated at 43.2%, indicating a medium level.

In conclusion, spiritual leadership and its dimensions were found to be above average, thus indicating favorable conditions. Considering the importance of spiritual leadership and its relationship with burnout, managers should strengthen all dimensions of spiritual leadership in hospitals to create an environment without conflict and reduce burnout to improve efficiency.