Evaluation of Managerial Skills among Pharmacists in South of Iran Running Title: Managerial Skills among Pharmacists

Background and Purpose: According to the importance of managerial skills in both public and private pharmacies, this study aimed to investigate the managerial skills of technical officers of pharmacies in south of Iran. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on 124 technical officers and 113 personnel working in the pharmacies in Shiraz in 2017. A researcher-made questionnaire was developed containing demographic questions (age, sex, and work experience), place of study, pharmacy ownership, and type of pharmacy, and 17 other questions to evaluate the managerial skills of the technical officers from their own self-assessment and their personnel viewpoints. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by experts, and its reliability was confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.85. Data was analyzed applying SPSS23 through descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney, and Chi-square tests (α=5%). Results: This study showed that from the perspective of the personnel working in pharmacies, the skill of “time management” was in a desirable condition, and the skill of “conflict management” was in an undesirable condition. Based on the results of the self-assessment of technical officers, their managerial skills were significantly related to gender, age, work experience, and pharmacy ownership. Accordingly, the female technical officers under 30 years of age, with a work experience of less than 16 years, who were working in public pharmacies assigned better scores to their managerial skills. Conclusion: Based on the findings, it is necessary to improve the managerial skills of technical officers specially their ability of conflict management through appropriate training, and examine the impact of demographic factors and the characteristic of pharmacies on their managerial skills.