Sima Rafiei¹, Abolghasem Pourreza^2,, Reza Baradaran Kazemzadeh³, Farzad Firouzi Jahantigh³

Many organizations have realized the importance of human resources for their competitive advantage. Empowering employees is therefore a principle necessity for organizational effectiveness. This study aimed to investigate hospital employees' attitude toward existing power distance in their organization and examine its effects. This was a cross sectional study with a descriptive-analytical research design conducted in Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals, Tehran, Iran. A sample of 306 managers and employees has been participated in the study according to the sample size. Separate questionnaires which were developed by Francesco and Chen (2000) were used to collect data from each group of them. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software. In confidence interval of 95%, there was a statistically significant relationship between employees' attitude towards power distance and their job satisfaction, organizational commitment, perception of discriminatory in organization, and readiness to accept working responsibilities (p < 0.05). Also, there was a statistically significant relationship between managers’ attitude toward power distance and the way of dealing with their employees, considering employees’ competency and qualification, giving them work independence also providing them with necessary supports. Disseminating the culture of low power distance in the organization makes employees perceive justice and equality in their organization and consequently be engaged more effectively in the work responsibilities in line with organizational goals.

power distance, managers, employees, hospital, organizational variables