The Role of Clinical and Process Quality in Achieving Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals

Managers constantly struggle with where to allocate their resources and efforts in managing the complex service delivery system called a hospital. In the broadest sense, their decisions and actions focus on two important aspects of health care—clinical or technical medical care that emphasizes “what” the patient receives and process performance that emphasizes “how” health care services are delivered to patients. Here, we investigate the role of leadership, clinical quality, and process quality on patient satisfaction. A causal model is hypothesized and evaluated using structural equation modeling for a sample of 202 U.S. hospitals. Statistical results support the idea that leadership is a good exogenous construct and that clinical and process quality are good intermediate outcomes in determining patient satisfaction. Statistical results also suggest that hospital leadership has more influence on process quality than on clinical quality, which is predominantly the doctors' domain. Other results are discussed, such as that hospital managers must be mindful of the fact that process quality is at least as important as clinical quality in predicting patient satisfaction. The article concludes by proposing areas for future research.     

How Software Project Risk Affects Project Performance: An Investigation of the Dimensions of Risk and an Exploratory Model*

To reduce the high failure rate of software projects, managers need better tools to assess and manage software project risk. In order to create such tools, however, information systems researchers must first develop a better understanding of the dimensions of software project risk and how they can affect project performance. Progress in this area has been hindered by: (1) a lack of validated instruments for measuring software project risk that tap into the dimensions of risk that are seen as important by software project managers, and (2) a lack of theory to explain the linkages between various dimensions of software project risk and project performance. In this study, six dimensions of software project risk were identified and reliable and valid measures were developed for each. Guided by sociotechnical systems theory, an exploratory model was developed and tested. The results show that social subsystem risk influences technical subsystem risk, which, in turn, influences the level of project management risk, and ultimately, project performance. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.     

The Impact of Organizational Culture on Time‐Based Manufacturing and Performance

Firms are utilizing an array of manufacturing practices in their quest for survival and success in the marketplace. The implementation of those practices has not always resulted in success stories as the focus had been mostly on technical issues, with little concern for “soft issues.” For example, the enabling role of organizational culture has often been ignored. Using Schein's conceptualization of culture as underlying assumptions, espoused values, and artifacts, we examine a framework that relates culture and manufacturing practices to performance. The underlying assumption of customer orientation is posited to affect espoused values such as beliefs on investing in facilities and equipment to leverage intellectual work and to promote creativity, beliefs on working with others, beliefs on making decisions that are global, beliefs on management control, and beliefs on integrating with suppliers. The espoused values are hypothesized to affect visible attributes of culture (behaviors) such as time‐based manufacturing practices, which firms are employing for competitive advantage. A sample of 224 firms is used for developing research instruments and testing the hypothesized relationships advanced. Results indicate that high levels of customer orientation lead to a set of managerial beliefs that are collaborative and integrative. In turn, certain espoused values support a high level of time‐based manufacturing practice, which leads to high performance.     

公案及其背景——透视转型期司法中的民意

公案是民众根据个案的主题元素,经过议论、诉说和加工而形塑出来的公共事件.本文把公案归纳为六类,通过个案剖析了公案中事实的变异过程以及公案所反映的民众生活状态的社会背景,并分析了公案中的潜在的裁判者.     

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Just-in-Time Task Scope Versus Just-in-Time Workflow Integration on Organizational Design

The research tests a theory of JIT as a technology having task scope versus workflow integration dimensions. The results show that JIT task scope predicts JIT workflow integration, and that only the former is associated with organizational designs that are more specialized, decentralized, integrated, and reliant on formal performance measurement control. The findings imply that organizational structure does not necessarily follow from workflow structure. Rather, both organizational structure and workflow structure follow from the knowledge capital that JIT task scope represents.     

Internal and External Integration for Product Development: The Contingency Effects of Uncertainty,Equivocality, and Platform Strategy

Effective product development requires firms to unify internal and external participants. As companies attempt to create this integrated environment, two important questions emerge. Does a high level of internal integration lead to a higher level of external integration? In the context of product development, this study considers whether internal integration in the form of concurrent engineering practices affects the level of external integration as manifested by customer integration, supplier product integration, and supplier process integration. External integration, in turn, may influence competitive capabilities, namely product innovation performance and quality performance. Second, using contingency theory, do certain contextual variables moderate the linkages between integration strategy (external and internal) and performance? Specifically, this study considers whether uncertainty, equivocality, and platform development strategy change the relationships among internal integration, external integration, and competitive capabilities. Data collected from 244 manufacturing firms across several industries were used to test these research questions. The results indicate that both internal and external integration positively influence product innovation and quality and ultimately, profitability. With respect to contingency effects, the results indicate that equivocality moderates the relationships between integration and performance.     

农村产业结构调整与农村第三产业发展

农村产业结构作为农村经济结构的重要组成部分,是结构调整的重要方面。当前我国农村三次产业发展不平衡,第三产业发展滞后,阻碍了农村经济的持续发展。本文从产业结构转换的一般规律出发,论证了发展农村第三产业的必要性,剖析了存在的问题,并提出了相应的对策。     

试论马克思主义哲学的辩证本体论

马克思主义哲学包含丰富的唯物辩证的本体论思想,是一种辩证本体论。其中,物质本体论是马克思主义哲学的基础本体论,其宗旨是先行地澄明世界的一般前提和基础;人学本体论是马克思主义哲学的主体本体论、其宗旨是先行地澄明马克思主义哲学研究的核心和主题;实践本体论是马克思主义哲学的逻辑本体论,其宗旨是先行地澄明人类社会历史活动的一般前提和基础;社会存在本体论是马克思主义哲学的结构本体论,其宗旨是先行地澄明人类社会历史的一般本质和特征。     

困惑与突围:中国电视新闻评论节目的现状与前瞻

近两年来,与电视民生新闻的红透半边天相对照,一度倍受青睐的电视新闻评论节目却日渐式微。文章在对中国电视新闻评论节目的生存现状做出较为深刻的反思之后,提出了一些摆脱窘迫、寻求突围的策略,并试图为中国电视新闻评论节目的未来走向做出较为合理的预测与前瞻。     

诗之苦旅--与彭燕郊先生对谈

新诗的发展首先依赖于创作的实践———诗探索;同时,也少不了对"五四"以来的诗歌经验的考察———特别是对那些数十年如一日艰苦跋涉,至今仍在孜孜地求索探新的老诗人的个案研究。彭燕郊就是当今为数不多、坚持探索求新的,历经了一个花甲的诗之苦旅了的老诗人之一。