Stephen Walston and Ann F. Chou
Increased competition and resource scarcity have caused hospitals to seek internal efficiencies by restructuring their structures and processes. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Increased competition and resource scarcity have caused hospitals to seek internal efficiencies by restructuring their structures and processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of an organization's orientation toward control and learning and the use of process facilitators on perceived organizational consensus on outcomes related to cost, quality, and the ability to sustain implemented changes following a major hospital restructuring.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 263 hospitals from across the USA were collected. Factor analysis was employed to develop scales measuring the organization's emphasis on learning, controls, and processes. Regression analysis then examined their relationship to the consensus on restructured outcomes.
Findings
The findings suggest a positive relationship between a learning orientation and processes with improved perceived agreement on restructuring outcomes. Hospitals with control orientations have a negative relationship with perceived organizational consensus.
Research limitations/implications
The research has some limitations. The primary data for both the CEOs' and employees' perspectives comes from hospital CEOs. Also, the study is a cross‐sectional study and lacks longitudinal information. It also includes mostly not‐for‐profit hospitals, with 100 or more beds, in urban areas.
Practical implications
Hospitals will continue to feel pressures for the need to restructure and change. The findings suggest that hospitals achieve better results if they foster a learning orientation and put in place processes to facilitate the challenges of change. Although control systems are important, executives should realize that they might impede organizational efforts during organizational change. Hospitals may succeed in their change efforts by balancing adequate control and learning that are supported by processes to facilitate restructuring efforts.
Originality/value
The work provides an original study on the effects of an organization's orientation of learning and controls and change processes on the perceived consensus of restructuring outcomes. The dichotomy of learning and controls has not been applied to hospital consensus on outcomes. The research suggests that hospitals can improve their change efforts by implementing appropriate processes and greater learning mechanisms. During times of stress and change hospitals often become more control oriented, which may create greater misalignments and ineffective change. Managers should learn from the research that appropriate processes and learning will provide better consensus and more effective change.
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Stephen L. Walston, Badran A. Al‐Omar and Faisal A. Al‐Mutari
The purpose of this paper is to describe three organizational dimensions that influence hospital patient safety climate, also showing and discussing differences between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe three organizational dimensions that influence hospital patient safety climate, also showing and discussing differences between organizational types.
Design/methodology/approach
Surveys were conducted in four types of Saudi Arabian hospitals. Resultant information was analyzed using factor analysis and multiple‐regression.
Findings
Management support, a proper reporting system and adequate resources were found to influence the hospital patient safety climate.
Research limitations/implications
The cross‐sectional hospital survey took place in a country that is radically redesigning its healthcare system. Major changes including hospital privatisation and healthcare insurance systems may have significant effects on hospital organizational climates.
Originality/value
Improving a hospital's patient safety climate is critical for decreasing errors and providing optimal services. Although much patient safety research has been published, the organizational climate in non‐Western countries has not been studied. The paper provides a unique Saudi Arabian hospital perspective and suggests that three dimensions influence the patient safety climate. Hospital managers are encouraged to improve these critical dimensions to positively develop their patient safety climate.
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Ari Mwachofi, Stephen L. Walston and Badran A. Al‐Omar
Nurses heavily influence patient care quality and safety. This paper aims to examine socioeconomic and organizational/system factors affecting patient safety and quality…
Abstract
Purpose
Nurses heavily influence patient care quality and safety. This paper aims to examine socioeconomic and organizational/system factors affecting patient safety and quality perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was constructed to gather demographic, managerial support, information technology implementation and integration information. Data were collected from nurses in five Riyadh hospitals, Saudi Arabia. Registered nurses working in hospital departments participated in the survey. A total of 566 completed questionnaires were returned. Subsequent data were analyzed through binary logistic regression.
Findings
Factors that improve patient safety and the likelihood that nurses use their own facility include: fewer visible errors; ability to communicate suggestions; information technology support and training; and a confidential error reporting system.
Research limitations/implications
The survey was a cross‐sectional study. Consequently, it is difficult to establish causation. Furthermore, nursing in these hospitals is dominated by foreign nationals. Also, as with all surveys, this research may be subject to response bias. Although the questionnaire was randomly distributed, there were no mechanisms to assure privacy and minimize peer influence. The high positive patient safety perceptions may be influenced by either individual or peer biases.
Practical implications
Nurses are important communicators; especially about hospital safety and quality. The research informs leaders about areas that need considering and improving. Findings indicate that system factors, including functional feedback, suggestions, and error reporting significantly affect patient safety improvements. Likewise, nurse education to operate their information systems has positive effects. Healthcare leaders need to understand factors that affect patient safety perceptions when creating a patient safety culture.
Originality/value
Few international articles examine the factors that influence nurses' patient safety perceptions or examine those factors that affect these perceptions. This paper adds value by researching what influences patient safety perceptions among Riyadh nurses.
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The paper aims to explore the relationship between accounting and racial violence through an investigation of sharecropping in the postbellum American South.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the relationship between accounting and racial violence through an investigation of sharecropping in the postbellum American South.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of primary sources including peonage case files of the US Department of Justice and the archives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are utilised. Data are analysed by reference to Randall Collins' theory of violence. Consistent with this theory, a micro-sociological approach to examining violent encounters is employed.
Findings
It is demonstrated that the production of alternative or competing accounts, accounting manipulation and failure to account generated interactions where confrontational tension culminated in bluster, physical attacks and lynching. Such violence took place in the context of potent racial ideologies and institutions.
Originality/value
The paper is distinctive in its focus on the interface between accounting and “actual” (as opposed to symbolic) violence. It reveals how accounting processes and traces featured in the highly charged emotional fields from which physical violence could erupt. The study advances knowledge of the role of accounting in race relations from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a largely unexplored period in the accounting history literature. It also seeks to extend the research agenda on accounting and slavery (which has hitherto emphasised chattel slavery) to encompass the practice of debt peonage.
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Greta Cummings and Carole A. Estabrooks
The study purpose was to assess the evidence on the effects of hospital restructuring that included layoffs, on nurses who remained employed, using a systematic review of the…
Abstract
The study purpose was to assess the evidence on the effects of hospital restructuring that included layoffs, on nurses who remained employed, using a systematic review of the research literature to contribute to policy formation. Papers addressing research, hospital restructuring resulting in layoffs, effects on nurses, and a stated relationship between the independent and dependent variables were included. Data were extracted and the quality of each study was assessed. The final group of included studies had 22 empirical papers. The main effects were significant decreases in job satisfaction, professional efficacy, ability to provide quality care, physical and emotional health, and increases in turnover, and disruption to healthcare team relationships. Nurses with fewer years of experience or who experienced multiple episodes of restructuring experienced greater effects. Other findings remain inconclusive. Further research is required to determine if these effects are temporal or can be mitigated by individual or organizational strategies.