Identifying the Drivers of Evaluating Individual Excellence with the Approach of Selecting Outstanding Employees in the Country’s Universities of Medical Sciences

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and validate the drivers of individual excellence evaluation with an outstanding employee selection approach in the country’s universities of medical sciences. This sequential qualitative study was conducted in two exploratory and validation phases. In the qualitative phase, 19 experts, including senior human resource managers, faculty members in management, operational and executive managers of clinical and treatment units, and human resource experts from the Ministry of Health, were recruited through snowball sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis, encompassing initial coding, theme development, and theme refinement, with Atlas.ti software. In the validation phase, 16 experts were purposively selected, and the identified drivers were evaluated through three Delphi rounds using an expert-evaluation checklist and SPSS. Intra-theme agreement was 0.75, Cohen’s kappa coefficient was 0.71, and the test-retest reliability coefficient of the checklist was 0.89. Thematic analysis initially generated 478 codes; after removing 356 redundant codes, 122 final criteria were organized into 24 drivers and eight main themes. The themes comprised professional and specialized competencies; efficiency, effectiveness, and performance; excellent organizational behaviors; individual development and continuous learning; ethical and professional values; innovation, creativity, and problem-solving; effective communication and human interactions; and participation and social responsibility. The three-round Delphi process confirmed all 24 identified drivers. In the final round, adherence to organizational ethical principles (M=3.97), commitment to organizational discipline and culture (M=3.94), structured lifelong learning (M=3.92), achievement of organizational work goals (M=3.91), and clear and constructive communication skills (M=3.91) received the highest evaluations. Individual excellence evaluation for selecting outstanding employees in universities of medical sciences is a multidimensional construct that extends beyond conventional job-performance indicators and encompasses specialized competencies, organizational behaviors, continuous learning, professional ethics, innovation, communication, and social responsibility. Accordingly, the identified framework can provide a comprehensive and context-sensitive basis for developing more systematic, integrated, and competency-based mechanisms for identifying, selecting, and developing outstanding employees within universities of medical sciences.