PurposeThis study proposes a comprehensive IT governance framework aimed at effectively managing hospital IT departments, ensuring alignment with healthcare objectives, implementing risk management strategies, measuring performance and fostering continuous service improvement to enhance operational efficiency.Design/methodology/approachThe research utilizes the fuzzy Delphi method, selecting eleven experts in health IT governance and management based on their expertise within the Iranian healthcare context. Participants evaluated the relevance and effectiveness of various frameworks on a scale from 1 to 10, enabling a nuanced understanding of their applicability in real-world settings.FindingsThe fuzzy Delphi method revealed that COBIT scored the highest at 9.57, indicating its strong alignment with evaluated criteria in IT governance for healthcare, followed by frameworks like ITIL, ISO 27 K, ISO 22301 and ISO 9001. In contrast, frameworks such as TOGAF, CMMI and PRINCE2 showed relative weaknesses. This study highlights the necessity of integrating established IT governance frameworks to improve healthcare delivery in Iranian hospitals. By adopting a tailored approach that includes COBIT, ITIL, ISO 27 K, ISO 20 K, ISO 9001 and ISO 22301, healthcare organizations can enhance IT service delivery, ensure compliance and optimize resource allocation, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes and organizational efficiency, guiding healthcare managers and policymakers in developing ICT strategies.Research limitations/implicationsFrom a theoretical standpoint, the findings emphasize the need for hybrid IT governance frameworks in healthcare, combining domain-agnostic standards (e.g. COBIT, ISO 27001, ITIL) with healthcare-specific priorities like continuity (ISO 22301) and quality management (ISO 9001). This approach addresses a gap in the literature by advocating contextual adaptability over rigid models, challenging assumptions that healthcare requires entirely novel frameworks.Practical implicationsFor healthcare leaders, this translates to adopting a multi-framework strategy - integrating COBIT for compliance, ISO 22301 for resilience, ISO 27001 for security, ITIL for service management and ISO 9001 for process standardization.Originality/valueThis article appears to be original and significant as it provides detailed insights into health IT governance and management from the perspective of professional experts.

The implementation of electronic health (e-Health) in healthcare organizations consistently encounters numerous challenges. These barriers hinder the widespread adoption of this promising technology within healthcare settings. This study addresses the challenges of implementing e-Health across various hospitals and also aims to evaluate the maturity of hospital information systems (HIS) in Iranian hospitals based on the electronic medical record adoption model (EMRAM). Through two rounds of literature review and case studies, a comprehensive understanding of these previously unexplored issues has been developed. The findings identify 13 social and technical challenges, including the lack of standard applications, high costs associated with e-Health and training, legal issues, security concerns, inconsistencies and diversities in perceived e-Health benefits and barriers, lack of proficiency, and difficulties healthcare professionals face in integrating e-Health into their daily tasks. There are also negative perceptions among physicians and patients regarding the use of e-Health software, the lengthy implementation times for HIS systems, technical difficulties due to platform diversity, resistance to change, and the limited use of pilot projects, particularly in Iran. Moreover, the maturity of hospital cases in Iran is at 3 stages, in contrast to the 7 stages of EMRAM. These results underscore the need to develop an effective strategy to address the challenges identified in this research. Additionally, a specific program should be implemented for developers to enhance the maturity of HISs and advance them to higher stages of EMRAM.

Purpose: People who have a sense of trust in the leadership believe that they are treated fairly and with fairness and sincerity in the organization. These people are honest and transparent in their business communication, and their ability to listen to the opinions of others is more and better. Among the other factors that contribute to the increase of organizational quality and maturity, especially in organizations with information technology, is the quality of information systems and knowledge sharing. These three factors can be the basis for creation of creativity, motivation and promotion of knowledge in the organization. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of trust in leadership, knowledge sharing, and the quality of information systems on innovation and employee motivation in public libraries. Method: The current research is practical in terms of its purpose, and is quantitative-descriptive in terms of the type and method of collecting research data, and is based on the structural equation model (SEM) that was conducted using the survey method. The statistical population of the study included all the employees of the public libraries of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province in the year 1400 in the number of 148 people, which was sampled using a simple random sampling method and finally 113 complete questionnaires were analyzed. To collect data from the leadership trust questionnaire (Seo et al., 2016), information systems quality questionnaire (Delon and McLean, 2004), employee innovation questionnaire (Scott and Brath, 1994), employee motivation questionnaire (Bakhshi et al., 2004) and knowledge sharing questionnaire (Lee, 2001) was used. The content validity of the tool was verified by experts and its reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha. Findings: In order to achieve the purpose of the research, eight sub-hypotheses were defined to fully evaluate and examine all aspects of the research. The findings showed that trust in leadership has a significant effect on employee innovation and motivation. In addition, the quality of information systems affects the innovation and motivation of employees. On the other hand, trust in leadership and the quality of information systems affect knowledge sharing, and knowledge sharing is also effective on employee innovation and motivation. Originality/value: The current research has investigated the effect of trust in leadership, knowledge sharing and the quality of information systems on innovation and motivation in all active public libraries in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. This research is the the first study based on the combination of internal and external reference questionnaires that have dealt with the determining role of these factors in increasing the service quality of public libraries in Iran. In addition, the results of this research can help library managers to move the atmosphere of collaboration within the library towards more favorable conditions in the interaction between employees and provide more creativity and motivation for colleagues with appropriate policy making and planning. This policy itself can lead to a more appropriate response from library staff to clients.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the case of a privatized manufacturing company assigned under Article 44 of the Constitution, which after privatization entered a crisis for various reasons and caused numerous security and social challenges. Methodology: The research applied critical ethnography using the Carspecken method, based on which the researcher studied the company in detail for a period over a year long. Findings: Findings show that there are some tricky ways open to certain individuals to include a certain company in the list of companies to be privatized. This inclusion is a tricky process planned and monitored long enough before the actual privatization is implemented and it is basically meant to bring about illegitimate profits for the people involved. When the privatization is realized, crisis opens up due to mismanagement which supports special, non-productive interests of the new owners. Then it becomes clear that such companies not only do not help resolve the crisis, but also increase the dimensions of the crisis and in fact they themselves become a challenging factor to intensify tension among the companies involved. Implications: For the first time in Iran, this study tried to evaluate precisely and analytically the performance of a privatized company and pinpoint the problems it is faced with. It also clearly presents solutions to overcome such a challenge. Recommendations: The results and suggestions of this study provide a good platform to prevent corrupt privatizations; in addition, it helps companies involved in such crises find ways out of them.

Today, Information Technology (IT) is considered as one of the major national development principles in each country which is applied in different fields. One of the most important fields in which IT is applied is health care and hospitals are similarly considered as most substantial organizations that use IT vastly. Although, different benchmarks and frameworks were developed to assess different aspects of Hospital Information Systems (HIS), still there was no reference model to benchmark HIS in the world until very recently. Eventually, Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) which is globally a well-known model to benchmark the rate of HIS utilization in the hospitals, were emerged. Nevertheless, this model has not been introduced in majority of developing and even some developed countries in the world yet. In this study, EMRAM is applied to benchmark both governmental and private hospitals in Iran. This research is based on an applied descriptive method to assess five governmental and three private hospitals in Isfahan in 2015. This province is one of the most important provinces of Iran. The results reveal that HIS is not at the center of concern in these hospitals and are in the first and second maturity stages in accordance with EMRAM. Therefore, these types of hospitals are far away from desirable conditions and stages. Yet, the immaturity of HISs in private hospitals is more observable. This situation including the pressure of different beneficiaries such as insurance companies, has forced hospital managers to develop and enhance their HISs, especially in governmental hospitals.

Background: Today, there are different benchmarks created to evaluate the maturity of hospital information systems, however, until very recently, there was no reference framework or model to evaluate these system. In the end, a universally famous model called the electronic medical record adoption model appeared as a cornerstone to assess the maturity rate of hospital information system applications in hospitals. However, many developing countries and even some developed nations have not yet been able to present it in countries around the globe. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the maturity of military and civilian (governmental and private) hospitals with regards to electronic medical record adoption model in Isfahan and Tehran provinces of Iran. Methods: This research was a descriptive analytical study to evaluate 2 military, 5 governmental, and 3 private hospitals in the provinces of Isfahan and Tehran in 2016. The selection method was simple random sampling for military hospitals and stratified sampling for civilian hospitals. The measurement tool was electronic medical record adoption model checklist. Results: The findings showed that 100% of military and civilian hospitals reached the 1st stage requirements of EMRAM. However, 50% of all military hospitals, 60% of governmental and 66% of private hospitals have overcome the 2nd stage of HIS maturity. Consequently, these hospitals have the least suitable conditions and stages. However, the military hospitals’ maturity was clearly diverse. Moreover, private hospitals showed more obvious immaturity of HISs than military and governmental hospitals. Also, the maturity of military and governmental hospitals was roughly similar. Conclusions: By comparing the Iranian military and civilian hospitals, it was found that maturity of HISs was rather same. The HISs did not apply full potential benefits of HIS and were put up to the third stage of EMRAM in these hospitals. However, the governmental hospital was still standing against it. Eventually, there was no strategy to develop a HIS plan in these hospitals. However, more research is needed to investigate the military hospitals in Iran due to the fact that 2 different types of military along with police health care systems are operating in Iran.

Introduction: Today, information technology is considered as an important national development principle in each country which is applied in different fields. Health care as a whole and the hospitals could be regarded as a field and organizations with most remarkable IT applications respectively. Although different benchmarks and frameworks have been developed to assess different aspects of Hospital Information Systems (HISs) by various researchers, there is not any suitable reference model yet to benchmark HIS in the world. Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) has been currently presented and is globally well-known to benchmark the rate of HIS utilization in the hospitals. Notwithstanding, this model has not been introduced in Iran so far. Methods: This research was carried out based on an applied descriptive method in three private hospitals of Isfahan—one of the most important provinces of Iran—in the year 2015. The purpose of this study was to investigate IT utilization stage in three selected private hospitals. Conclusion: The findings revealed that HIS is not at the center of concern in studied hospitals and is in the first maturity stage in accordance with EMRAM. However, hospital managers are enforced and under the pressure of different beneficiaries including insurance companies to improve their HIS. Therefore, it could be concluded that these types of hospitals are still far away from desirable conditions and need to enhance their IT utilization stage significantly.

Background: Hospitals are regarded as the most important part of each healthcare system. At present, all hospitals are using hospital information system (HIS) as an infrastructure in recording, retrieval, and transmission of data, facilitation of decision-making processes, and other healthcare-related domains. However, its position, maturity, and boarder of its coverage are not quite clear. The hospitals affiliated with military healthcare in Iran are facing the same challenges. On the other hand, Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) is a worldwide-recognized stage-based model that is used to assess the maturity of HISs in the hospitals. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the maturity and applicability of HISs in Iranian hospitals. Materials and Methods: Two Iranian military hospitals were selected for HIS maturity assessment. Data were collected through interviewing related experts and the use of some software and documentation analysis. Then the data were compared with the EMRAM. Results: The results revealed that the HISs in these military hospitals had reached different stages of EMRAM while they could reach upper HIS maturity stages. Conclusions: The maturity of HISs in Iranian military hospitals was almost the same as that of Iranian nonmilitary hospitals. The HISs in these hospitals did not utilize full potentials advantages of HIS and were placed at up to third stages of EMRAM.

Concentration on Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) implementation as a de-facto standard is rapidly growing in the organizations. One of the major parts of this framework is service support which includes incident management, problem management, configuration management, change management, release management processes and helpdesk operation. There are a variety of suggestions from different enterprises such as Microsoft Operation Framework(MOF), Hewlett Packard IT Service Management, and IBMs Systems Management Solution Lifecycle to implement these processes but they have tendency to propose their productions as well. Moreover small information technology units suffer from lack of proper prescription to implement the ITIL framework. This text has focused to provide an incremental implementation approach considering cultural issues to guide small information technology units and businesses to progressively initiate and implement service support processes as the most important component of ITIL. The framework is proposed based on a small IT center at a university which also includes related necessary information such as process KPIs, implementation steps,...

Nowadays, almost all the enterprises in the world fall in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) category even though SMEs has different definitions in different countries. At the same time, there is no exemplar standard and /or framework for information technology (IT) governance for SMEs. This paper presents the main issues in implementing IT governance in SMEs. Firstly, it explains the definition of SMEs and their characteristics, secondly it discusses IT governance definition and its framework. Finally, some issues and approaches for ITG implementation in SMEs are described, and end with conclusion and future work.

One major problem is to record software assets and update them in the organizations. Information technology service management (ITSM) usually refers to ISO/IEC 20000 standard that the configuration management (CM) process known as hart of it. configuration management database (CMDB) is part of the CM that records and updates changes and retrieve the services. This paper focus on propose a novel ITSM-based implementation method to maintain software assets in order to sustain organizations activities.

ITIL (information technology infrastructure library) is the most widely used IT framework in organizations. This de-facto standard is a service-based IT-framework that aims to improve the quality of organizational services. The core of this framework is configuration management that includes configuration management data base (CMDB) to record, update and trace all assessed activities and information in the organization. However, ITIL implementation faces some challenges especially when it effects on culture, attitudes and processes in the organization. One major part of this implementation is related to CMDB implementation. There are several major approaches to implement this repository in organizations. This paper, at first describes ITIL infrastructure and then highlights major approaches and its challenges to implement CMDB in the SME companies.

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is the most widely used IT framework in organizations. This de-facto standard is a service-based IT-framework that aims to improve the quality of organizational services. The main categories of this framework are Service Support (SS) and Service Delivery (SD). This paper focuses on Service Support component as its implementation faces some challenges particularly on culture, attitudes and processes. There is a need for a comprehensive framework to implement ITIL-based processes in Small IT Units (SITUs). This paper, at first describes ITIL infrastructure focusing on Set-vice Support component of ITIL by a discussion on the proposed ITIL-Service Support framework.

ITIL is the most widely used IT framework in most organizations nowadays. Many public and private IT organizations have good impressions and attempt to adopt ITIL into their own businesses. However, the ITIL implementation faces some issues by the target organizations to accept this as a complete framework. In addition, there are several steps to implement this framework in the target organizations. This paper tries at first to clarify each of these major issues and then suggest a mature guideline on the implementation of ITIL in the target organizations.

Currently, IT (Information Technology) departments are the most complex parts of organizations and ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is considered the most widely used IT framework in them. This De-facto standard is intended to support IT units of organizations to implement quality based processes in an effort to improve the quality of IT services. ITIL, it self is consisting of five components which are service strategy, service design, service operation, service transition and continual service improvement. Every one of these components has several processes. The structure of every one of ITIL processes includes definition, detail description, Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). On the other hand, The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is an audit and IT based framework with high capability on process measurement. This measurement-based framework is consisting of four different domains which are plan and organize, acquire and implement, delivery and support and monitor and evaluate domains. Taking into consideration the strength and weaknesses of each standard and framework, an ideal and practical approach is to implement ITIL based processes through an effective collaboration with COBIT based KPIs to measure and enhance every ITIL based processes. However, one of the critical ITIL processes is Problem Management process. This process issues to identify rout causes of reported incidents and try to eliminate them. In this paper, all KPIs applied to this process were at first gathered with some industrial experiences and then analyzed to produce some findings relating to the most common KPIs and practices used.

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is the most widely used IT framework in organizations. This de-facto standard is a service-based IT-framework that aims to improve the quality of organizational services. The Core of this framework is configuration management that includes Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) to record, update and trace all assesses activities and information in the organization. However, ITIL implementation faces some challenges especially when it effects on culture, attitudes and processes in the organization. One major part of this implementation is related to CMDB implementation. There are several major approaches to implement this repository in organizations. This paper, at first describes ITIL infrastructure and then highlights major approaches and their challenges to implement CMDB in the SME companies.

ITIL is the most widely used IT framework in most organizations in the world now. Every public and private IT organization tries to adopt ITIL into its own business and implement it because there are a lot of different kinds of information and activities in the organizations that should manage. There is a possible solution to record and retrieve those founded information in the ITIL-based repository which its name is Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB). Also SME companies have high impact on business market, today. SME’s are engines of developing the economy of developing countries. In addition, one of the most practical Knowledge management Frameworks is suggested by Giga Information Group which is a circular model with four stages that represents what people generally do with knowledge. This paper tries to extend the usability of this ITIL-based repository in to other parts of the SME’s as well to cover four stages of knowledge management framework.