The Determinants of Internal Reputation: A Study of Bahraini Research Scientists

Abstract

Abstract: This study analyzes the factors that determine the reputation of governmental research departments and/or organizations in Bahrain. Reputation, in this context, refers to the extent to which research scientists regard the department in which they work as a good or bad place to practice science. Thus, it is internal rather than external reputation that is in question. Research scientists in departments within sixteen ministries and organizations were included in the study. The sample of 163 respondents was representative in terms of age, gender, qualifications, and experience of the research scientists in the organizations covered. All the research scientists were educated to at least the level of Bachelor of Science (BSc) and in some cases had obtained a higher degree, Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy. The opinions of the research scientists were collected using a questionnaire containing 98 Likert-type questions. The relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable, reputation, were examined using correlation and multivariate analysis The factors that contributed most to the perception of reputation were identified. Innovative climate (INNO) emerged as the main determinant of internal reputation, job satisfaction (JSAT) as the second most important determinant, academic and scientific reputation (ACADM) as the third, and working conditions (WCON) as the fourth determinant of internal reputation. The reputation equation with the contribution of each factor to the variance is summarized as: Reputation: INNO (51.4%); JSAT (7%); ACADM (2.3%); WCON (1%). This result confirms the result of the UK study by Jones (1996), which established innovatory climate and job satisfaction as the main determinants of internal reputation among R&D scientists in the UK