<p> Shared leadership paradigms are becoming more popular in organizations because of the increased responsibilities placed on leaders within health care organizations. Researchers have conducted little research on how individuals on leadership teams perceive their role in engaging with others in their team. The qualitative phenomenological hermeneutic study involved examining how radiology administrators in Northern California describe their lived experiences on shared leadership teams, with an emphasis on their perceptions of team productivity and trust. The conceptual framework for the study included shared leadership theory, which scholars have noted is still a new field of study. Seven research participants representing from three to 18 years of experience as radiology managers with experience serving on shared leadership teams. From the five initial questions and sub questions, the analysis involved breaking down the responses into 175 separate areas of exploration. In addition to the demographics of the groups and types of teams served on, four themes emerged from this data: lived experience on shared leadership teams, knowledge and skills learned from shared leadership teams, key factors affecting team performance on shared leadership teams, and the effect of diversity on shared leadership teams. The implications of the research to leadership are that radiology managers may gain a better understanding of when to use shared leadership and how to best staff the teams to support organizational work, and how to improve shared leadership team dynamics.</p>

<p>Hospital leaders who fail to respond to poor patient satisfaction reports may experience lower organizational performance. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies of leaders in private health care settings to improve patient satisfaction. This study may provide strategies that health care leaders in the public setting can apply to improve patient satisfaction and organizational performance. One private health care provider operating in Vancouver, British Columbia, Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, was selected as both private and public healthcare centers are located in these areas. Data were gathered from 12 participant interviews and from an examination of available physical artifacts such as organizational documents provided by the participants and the company website. Transformational leadership was the underlying conceptual framework for this research. Triangulation was used to ensure the rigorousness of the study. In the study, themes were identified after member checking the transcribed open-ended interview questions. The 5 themes identified were cohesive culture of employee engagement, patient-focused model of care, timely access and follow-up of results and coordination of care, continuous system quality improvement, and employee accountability. These themes underscore the importance of a culture of employee engagement; they also illuminate care that focuses on the patient-care that ensures timely access, follow-up and coordination of care, quality improvement based on patient feedback, and employee accountability. Current publicly-funded hospitals and health care centers may apply these findings to improve patient satisfaction and organizational performance. </p>

<p> This quantitative study was an evaluation of the effectiveness of the online Training Home software program, designed for use with a national nonprofit business model. This study was undertaken because nonprofits have a difficult time resourcing training. If the Training Home program can deliver a comprehensive training program for minimal cost, then a nonprofit will be better able to deliver on the nonprofit&rsquo;s stated mission. For this study, six research questions centered on measuring the helpfulness of the program, the difference in job function training, improved knowledge of a national nonprofit, and perception of the Training Home program between those that had and or had not used the program. Additionally, cost per unit of training, the number of training vignettes delivered, time spent in training, ease of use by supervisors, and staff ratings of the effectiveness of the training home program. The population studied was the 450 staff at one affiliate of the national nonprofit. This staff group consisted of a mix of genders, ages, and education levels. This study used archival data gathered over the 2013, 2014, and 2015 calendar years and was analyzed using multivariate regression and descriptive analyses. The cost and number of training vignettes delivered in a 24-month period were compared to determine whether the Training Home program was a more cost-effective delivery model than the prior system for the year before the study. Analyses indicate that the Training Home program delivered more training to staff at a lower cost per unit of training when compared to the units of training delivered in the prior model. Supervisors and staff reported the program to be effective in knowledge management and tracking and the training of all staff. The study had positive results for the sample studied. It would be beneficial for any future studies to expand the sample size into other geographic regions.</p><p>

<p> This study examines methods and barriers to minority leadership recruitment in healthcare organizations. Minorities are underrepresented in healthcare organizations at the executive level, even though staff and patient demographics are becoming increasingly diverse. This disparity in minority representation presents the potential for staff and patient needs, interests, and values to be overlooked by senior management and the strategies, policies, and programs they implement. This study conducted interviews with human resources personnel at healthcare organizations identified as top performers to determine whether their organizations engaged in minority recruitment methods, what methods were successful, and what barriers existed to recruitment of minorities. These results were compared to survey data compiled by the Institute for Diversity in Health Management. The results show significant room for improvement in the implementation of comprehensive methods to recruit minority senior management, with significant variation among organizations in the amount and type of methods to recruit minority executives. These findings lead to the conclusion that more pressure needs to be placed on healthcare organizations to identify best practices in minority recruitment and implement these in formal, comprehensive human resources activities related to recruitment, retention, and professional development.</p>

This thesis considers quality in the National Health Service (NHS), the theories of dialogue, critical systems thinking, and quality - and how these domains can be related together to produce a new concept of quality called critical quality.A quality gap is identified between what the NHS produces and what the public requires of it. It is argued that this gap is unfair because of the generally unequal access of stakeholders to decisions about quality in the NHS. It is suggested that only through dialogue can the gap be reduced in size in a non-oppressive way.Principles of dialogue are derived from Habermas's (1991a,b) theory of communicative action and applied to interest group relationships using Grant's (1989) insider/outsider model. It is argued that critical systems thinking can be enhanced by embedding interventions within processes of dialogue, and that the analysis of insider/outsider relationships in situations can guide the use of critical systems thinking in creating dialogues.Three modes of quality management are identified (strategic, normative and critical). It is argued that the requirements and needs of the public cannot be met by an NHS that is dominated by strategic and normative quality. Instead critical quality, defined as the specification of services by mediation through dialogue between stakeholders, is advocated as a fairer mode of quality management for the NHS.An NHS quality dialogue (the Trent Quality Initiative) is evaluated. Dialogue is found to have occurred both within and between meetings. Two modes of peer group participation are identified (main dialogue vs meta-dialogue) and two general approaches to the implementation of critical quality in the NHS (incremental vs radical). Finally critical quality in public welfare services is discussed and a research agenda outlined for dialogue, quality and critical systems thinking.

Ulm, Univ., Diss., 2007.

No description available.

<p> Strategic sourcing has long been utilized by organizations to maximize budget and supply chain efficiency, usually through leveraged buying, but also through the formation of strategic partnerships with suppliers. When considering leveraged buys, the strategic sourcing process begins with a spend analysis, and the data obtained during the analysis is used by stakeholders to begin defining requirements. Traditional spend analysis restricts the data used in the spend analysis process to basic transactional information, and does not considered corporate social responsibility objectives as part of the strategic sourcing process. This research modifies an existing spend analysis process framework, and applies the framework in a case study that uses additional data points to identify opportunities to allow an organization to simultaneously achieve both strategic purchasing and social responsibility objectives. The study also examines strategic healthcare purchasing in a single source environment, and combines best practices developed using decentralized purchasing strategies by healthcare facilities and successful buyer-supplier relationships from multiple industries to create a process map for hospital systems transitioning to strategic centralized purchasing models. Systems engineering frameworks, process modeling, regression analysis, and cross functional process maps are used in this study&rsquo;s analysis. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) </p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.