Learning from adversity: diary of a medical manager

This article is one physician's account of his experiences in managing a large multispecialty group practice. While he was able to accomplish much in his tenure during the latter half of the 1980s, it was, on balance, a negative experience. He describes both the high and the low points of the period and assesses how both contributed to his eventual downfall. While personal, the account has important implications for others involved in the rapidly changing, personally rewarding, and eminently challenging health car system in which physician executives work.     

Systems innovation manager

Each year organizations spend a significant amount of money developing new products and processes in an effort to satisfy customer demands and manufacture high-quality products efficiently. Both development processes - product and process, are complex, resource intensive and thrive on innovation. They demand a variety of skills and resources, but in particular, participation among all staff in generating ideas, managing projects and implementing change. There are currently a number of software tools and methods that facilitate change in a systems environment. These range from complex modelling tools to information management tools. The tools have been developed around paradigms, e.g. world class manufacturing, total quality management and business process reengineering. They are often complex, requiring the efforts of skilled designers and managers. Current thinking within a systems environment reflects a more participative and less specialist approach to managing innovation and change. There is a need to create compromise between detailed project engineering and good management practice. This paper introduces a new paradigm centred on good management practice, and identifies the critical issues in systems innovation and change. The paradigm is articulated through a series of change levers and a methodology that guides managers and designers. It is supported by a series of software tools that together bring innovation management to life within the industrial organization.     

The statistician and the manager

Rational management depends upon the provision and proper use of information about the determinants and probable consequences of decisions. The provision of this information is a task best left to the services of a statistician who is professionally competent and himself uncommitted to policy and therefore in a position to offer objective judgment. What is required is an effective dialogue between the manager who asks pertinent questions and the statistician who provides relevant answers. How can this dialogue be made effective? Can the manager trust the statistician? Will the statistician be listened to? This paper examines the conditions necessary to ensure mutual trust between manager and information services. It offers guidelines for the behaviour of both parties to the dialogue.     

Bringing planning systems to the manager

This article reports the results of a corporate planning survey involving 15 U.K. companies and an experimental pilot planning system developed as a research tool to investigate aspects of interactive planning. The preliminary findings indicate that such systems can be of considerable benefit to managers, planners, and the organization, and that the design of the system from the users point of view will determine whether or not it will be accepted as a decision making aid. Some of the essential features are then described.     

Understanding manager resistance to blockchain systems

Blockchain technology has received much attention in the media and there is an increasing interest amongst organizations within financial services due to the potential benefits. As blockchain-based systems are a nascent technology, the requirements of the technology need to be understood, to allow blockchain systems to be successfully integrated within financial service organizations. There are gaps in academic research in understanding how managers evaluate the value of a blockchain-based system. This study develops a model to explain manager resistance to implementing blockchain-based systems in financial services organizations. This research advances the theoretical understanding of managers’ perspectives on blockchain-based systems and models their resistance to blockchain technology.     

Expert system for production manager recruitment

Abstract

Production manager recruitment poses a three-fold problem: finding a broad-knowtedged recruiter; obtaining an objective evaluation of the candidate; and the ever present risk of accepting unqualified candidates and rejecting qualified candidates A prototype expert system (ES) was developed for the purpose of testing the technical potential for computer assisted recruiting. The ES embodied a three-fold strategy: probing the candidate's past; asking questions from a business case study; and from several human-behaviour, video-taped episodes. The candidate's responses are graded, rated for competency (excellent, good, fair, poor), and weighted. A hiring action is recommended based on the composite weight. The prototype effectively demonstrated thit potential for expert system-conducted recruiting.     

Engineering ethics: The responsibility of the manager

This paper addresses the growing importance of ethics in today's society. Many professional societies have adopted formal codes of ethics for their organization and members. However, the engineer as a manager has an obligation not only to his profession but to his employees, organization, and the public as well to enforce ethical decisions and behavior at all times.     

Quality management remains top medical manager responsibility

Earlier this year, the Physician Executive Management Center conducted a survey of physician executives in management positions in hospitals, group practices, managed care organizations, and industry. Information was obtained for physician executives in both full-time and part-time roles. In addition to gathering compensation information, the survey sought to define the scope and intensity of the responsibilities of physician CEOs and senior medical managers (medical directors or the equivalent) in these organizations. In this article, the authors summarize the findings on responsibilities for senior medical managers in hospitals, group practices, and managed care organizations.     

The energy manager and his corporate role

Energy management is technical and innovation oriented and the manager needs specific skills. The author identifies these skills and their application to the process of development energy management objectives, and the short, medium and long term strategies necessary for energy conservation.     

Using a stress audit: The construction site manager experience in the UK

The aim of this study was to conduct a stress audit among construction industry site managers in the UK as a precursor to a stress management intervention programme. Qualitative data were obtained from in-dept interviews with a total of 36 male middle and senior construction site managers; and aquantitative data were obtained by questionnaire. Based on the analysis of 561 postal quenstionnaires, eight stressor factors were identified, most significantly, ambiguity (i.e. role and task). Job satisfaction levels were low compared to a normative population and influenced by grade level. Measures of mental health were similar to the norm for males, but both grade of management and type of contract affected mental health. Anxiety levels were signficantly high, independent of managerial grade. The stress of work overload and role insecurity (fear of failure) were associated with reduced mental health and high anxiety, and the stress of the organizational culture and climate was the strongest predictor of job dissatisfaction. There was some cause for concern for the vulnerable high-risk groups, i.e. the extreme type A and those working overtime. Medical data from a small subset of managers (n = 78) revealed that this group evidenced a better quality of psychological health than the group in total; but a high percentage of personnel had high levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. Recommendations for action focused on the needs of specific subgroups, and guided the organization on the acceptability of possible interventions at individual, interpersonal and organizational levels.     

Using a stress audit: The construction site manager experience in the UK

Abstract

The aim of this study was to conduct a stress audit among construction industry site managers in the UK as a precursor to a stress management intervention programme. Qualitative data were obtained from in-dept interviews with a total of 36 male middle and senior construction site managers; and aquantitative data were obtained by questionnaire. Based on the analysis of 561 postal quenstionnaires, eight stressor factors were identified, most significantly, ambiguity (i.e. role and task). Job satisfaction levels were low compared to a normative population and influenced by grade level. Measures of mental health were similar to the norm for males, but both grade of management and type of contract affected mental health. Anxiety levels were signficantly high, independent of managerial grade. The stress of work overload and role insecurity (fear of failure) were associated with reduced mental health and high anxiety, and the stress of the organizational culture and climate was the strongest predictor of job dissatisfaction. There was some cause for concern for the vulnerable high-risk groups, i.e. the extreme type A and those working overtime. Medical data from a small subset of managers (n = 78) revealed that this group evidenced a better quality of psychological health than the group in total; but a high percentage of personnel had high levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. Recommendations for action focused on the needs of specific subgroups, and guided the organization on the acceptability of possible interventions at individual, interpersonal and organizational levels.     

Engineering management: Abstractions,analysis, and clones do not a manager make

In this paper we argue that a loss in American technological competitiveness and inventiveness has resulted, in part, from an excessive reliance on widely publicized managerial practices and control. These managerial practices tend to be based on analysis, technique, and other abstractions of reality. Individually such practices are valuable tools for the manager, but applied universally and in mass they have become counterproductive. Such dysfunctions are especially true in engineering and research management where the tangle of requirements, procedures and reports interferes with innovation. Managers who rely to excess on such approaches tend to create bureaucratic climates which are hostile to innovation. Insulated by the very techniques they practice, they lose any sense or feel of the richness of organizational functioning and become overly concerned with risk avoidance. The proposed alternative management style is one which balances managerial control with autonomy for technical professionals while encouraging high levels of information-sharing.     

Difficulties in the transition from clinician to manager

Medical clinicians have for many years been managers. However, this management role has most often been in groups of other clinicians and other health personnel. Only recently have increasing numbers of medical clinicians been asked to accept responsibilities for managing hospital and health services divisions that carry financial and administrative responsibility in addition to traditional clinical responsibility. In these circumstances, it is appropriate to seek to gather information about the various issues that surround the transition from clinician to manager in a systematic way and to begin to explore the issue and any actions that might be taken to ameliorate transitional problems. Such a study was undertaken by the School of Health Services Management at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and is reported in this article.     

一把手协调工作四步法

领导班子在研究工作时,由于班子成员分管的工作不同,个人的认识、性格、作风、经历不同,常常会产生这样或那样的分歧。作为领导层的核心人物,一把手此时的重要任务就是组织大家畅叙己见,消除分歧,统一认识,协调工作,使大家心往一处想,劲往一处使,有效地实现组织共同目标。那么,一把手如何进行有效协调呢?一、适时引导,调节气氛。协调工作中经常出现的不正常气氛一般有两种:一种是沉默的气氛。沉默的原因比较复杂,有的是被协调者摸不清协调者及被协调的另一方的意图,怕先开口使自己处于被动境地;有的也可能是协调中出现一边倒或民主气氛缺乏…     

Consequences of expatriate top manager replacement on foreign subsidiary performance

Integrating expatriate staffing and leadership succession literature, this study investigates the influence of expatriate top manager replacement on foreign subsidiary performance and the moderating effects of subsidiary context. Building on a refined understanding of agency theory and evidence from 2113 firm-year observations, including 260 expatriate successions, this study shows that when expatriates are replaced, regardless by whom (either host-country national or expatriate manager), the performance of the subsidiaries declines, suggesting that the departure of expatriate top managers often see subsidiaries being left in a less than favorable condition. If the subsidiary's prior performance has been unsatisfactory, the newly appointed expatriate might not be able to prevent further deterioration of its performance. Replacing expatriates with host-country national managers can help improve subsidiary performance, but this usually happens in older, more established subsidiaries. These findings framed in a refined agency theory provide us a more in-depth understanding of expatriate staffing failure.     

The female manager—The pressures and the problems

There are an increasing number of women entering full-time careers in occupations that were once male dominated, for example, management. Recent surveys have suggested that more women are pursuing management careers in Western Europe and the United States. The pressures on these women are enormous in view of industry's inflexibility. Corporate policies must change if women are to survive in organizations. A variety of these policies are discussed in this paper, e.g. flexible work weeks, maternal and paternal leave, change and relocation policies, career planning, etc.     

项目管理人员绩效评估影响因素和现状分析

绩效评估一直被人们称为企业人力资源管理最强有力的方法之一[1].本文先从理论上阐明绩效评估对管理人员的激励作用,然后对管理人员绩效评估的内外影响因素进行分析,最后得出结论.     

Mathematics in management—How it looks to the manager

This paper begins by looking at the relationships between mathematics, statistics, OR (operational research) and management. It then examines a number of difficulties in the application of mathematics to management—difficulties of prediction, of determining an optimal solution, and of implementation. In connection with implementation, it discusses the position and attitudes of line managers, and the implications of these for the training of OR practitioners. Finally, an attempt is made to distinguish areas of application of mathematics in management by reference to the scale of resources at stake, the complexity of the problem, and the adequacy of the predictive data.