Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : This paper presents the main results of a survey among Belgian hospital leaders about their conceptualisation of hospital performance. The questionnaire was built using a model of performance developed by Sicotte et al. (1998) that is relying on Parsons' theory of social action (1951, 1977). Factorial analysis confirms that performance is viewed as a multidimensional construct. Moreover, empirical factors are quite similar to theoretical dimensions, even though one can note some interesting reorganisations of items inside or among dimensions. Finally, an analysis of factorial scores indicates diverging opinions among professional groups about the characteristics of hospitals operating at a high level of performance.