The purpose of this group project is to examine and critically evaluate a research paper in the area of strategy and strategic management. Identify a research paper on strategy, strategic planning, and/or strategic management for evaluation.
Question 1. Is there any missing information?
Question 2. Does the research and data come from reputable sources?
Question 3. Is there evidence of any bias? If so, how?
Question 4. Do you agree or disagree with the analysis and why?
Question 5. Do you agree or disagree with the implications and why?
Question 6. Do you agree or disagree with the paper's conclusions? Why?
Question 7. What could have been done to improve the paper?
My Problem:
I have read this report about six time and I still don't have a clue as to how I might proceed. This is a group project and I am only responsible for question # 3, Is there any evidence of BIAS? If so, how?
How do I proceed? what information can you guide me to so that I may complete this assignment? Any and all suggestions would be most helpful. Please site all sources. The article we are evaluating is attached.
The Educational Needs of Healthcare Managers and Executives in the Key Strategic Areas of Healthcare
- Contents
- Background
- Research Questions
- Sample
- Results
- Conclusion
ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
TABLE: Executives' Ratings of Knowledge Required and Available
REFERENCES
Abstract. Management approaches used by many healthcare organizations lag behind those of similar competitive industries. The authors of this article report findings from an exploratory study of executives' perceptions of training needs in managerial strategy. The authors asked executives to rate the level of knowledge required for each of five key areas in strategic management and then to assess actual levels of knowledge in the field. They found that (a) strategic management is vital in this competitive industry, (b) there is a disconnect between what healthcare managers should know and what they actually know about the tasks of strategic management, and (c) more resources need to be devoted to strategic management training and the development of managers at all levels of healthcare organizations.
Key words: strategic management, strategic management training, healthcare executive training
To cope with the complex healthcare industry, healthcare managers and executives need continuing education and opportunities for skill development (Chase 1994; Nichol 1990; Roemer 1996; Sieveking and Wood 1994; Smith et al. 1994; Smith et al. 1998; Wooden 1998). According to the typical argument in the literature, because of the healthcare industry's dynamic nature, advanced executive expertise is required for survival (Zuckerman 2000). Yet the management approaches used by many healthcare organizations have not caught up with similar competitive industries. In this article, we report findings from an exploratory study we did of executives' perceptions about training needs in managerial strategy. Specifically, we examined five key knowledge areas in strategic management and asked the executives to rate the level of knowledge required for each and then to assess current, or actual, levels of knowledge in the field.
Why single out the healthcare industry and its need for improved understanding of strategic management issues? There are several reasons. Healthcare is the largest industry in the United States. Its total sales of approximately $1.2 trillion are larger than all but a few countries' total economies. The industry faces environmental challenges far greater than those of most other industries. Confronted by both technology and regulatory issues, healthcare organizations are often required to make radical changes. Continued consolidation among healthcare organizations has created a complex, fluid, and competitive environment. Finally, unlike other managers, healthcare managers must grapple with quality-of-life issues versus bottom-line profits. In this research, we took an initial step toward determining the perceived needs for educating and training healthcare managers and executives, using the results of a survey in which we asked top managers in healthcare to identify the most urgent issues. Through such examination and evaluation, professionals in healthcare and higher education may work together to deal with the issues.
Gelatt (1993) describes the situation in healthcare as one of "white-water change" so turbulent that healthcare executives struggle to keep their heads above water. Do executives believe that conventional strategic management is too long term to allow a timely response to the dynamic environment of healthcare?
Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, arguably the world's best-known business academic, holds a different perspective. Porter has been a leading figure in the design of strategies in the face of turbulence since the publication of his first book, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors , now in its 53rd printing and translated into 17 languages (1998). In a recent interview with Keith H. Hammonds (2001), Porter argues that if CEOs want to make a difference, they must make time for strategy. He notes,
It's been a bad decade for strategy. Companies have bought into an extraordinary number of flawed or simplistic ideas about competition--what I call "intellectual potholes." As a result, many have abandoned strategy almost completely.... [One reason for this] was the emergence of the notion that in a world of change, you really shouldn't have a strategy. There was a real drumbeat that business was about change and speed and being dynamic and reinventing yourself, that things were moving so fast, you couldn't afford to pause. If you had a strategy, it was rigid and inflexible. And it was outdated by the time you produced it. That view set up a straw man, and it was a ridiculous straw man. It reflects a deeply flawed view of competition. But that view has become very well entrenched.... We all agree that change is faster now than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Does that mean you shouldn't have a direction? Well, probably not. For a variety of reasons, though, lots of companies got very confused about strategy and how to think about it.
Porter's observations may account for the healthcare industry's persistent difficulties in grappling with its dynamic environment. On the other hand, healthcare executives may simply lack the critical mass of strategic management know-how to survive in times of turmoil. We suspect that both problems--not applying strategic management and not knowing how to make it work--account for many of the industry's woes. In this research, we examined the importance of the tasks of strategic management in healthcare and whether competent healthcare managers and executives are skilled in administering these tasks. We find a significant disconnect between the two--strategic management is seen as very important, but healthcare executives do not feel fully equipped for the tasks involved.
What skills do healthcare managers and executives actually need to be effective in meeting the challenges? Perhaps no one knows for sure, as implied by Jaklevic (2000) when he pointed out that the current system for educating and developing healthcare managers may be flawed. Rundle (2000) suggests that the healthcare industry is falling behind in issues of management, particularly with respect to adopting and managing automation and technology. The implication is that managers and executives in healthcare, compared with their counterparts in other industries, do not have the business knowledge and skills to fully utilize the available technology.
Background:
In this study, we considered how to identify key skills needed by healthcare managers and executives to navigate the white-water change swirling about the industry. Through a stream of online surveys administered to healthcare managers and executives, our goal is to tease out the important strands of business knowledge needed for success in the healthcare industry. Ultimately, our plan is to use this information in developing a model healthcare administration program at the graduate level.
In a previous study (Crow et al. 2001), we analyzed the curricula of several highly respected healthcare administration graduate programs to develop an inventory of the common body of knowledge at that level of study. We looked at several university graduate programs, including most of those at the top of the U.S. News and World Report list of 2001 graduate school rankings for programs in health services administration. From the examined list of courses, we selected an initial course to serve as the starting point for our stream of online surveys. Specifically, we decided that an analysis of the basic issues in strategic management would be a good beginning. Consistent within the curricula we studied was an emphasis on course work that covered how organizations position themselves relative to their environment and their competitors to achieve their objectives and to ensure survival. This consistency was logical; crafting and implementing strategy is the most fundamental role of a CEO in healthcare settings (Beckham 1998; Lanser 2000; Trinh and O'Connor 2000). The virtues of strategic management of healthcare organizations are well documented (e.g., Zuckerman 1999 and 2000). And research indicates that the most valuable skills for a future CEO are strategic management and planning (Smith et al. 1998).
Once we selected strategic management as the topic for our first online survey, we identified the "bottom-line" tasks of that discipline, concerned that if we listed too many, our targeted managers and executives would be less willing to complete the survey. We settled on the five tasks of strategic management as elaborated by Thompson and Strickland (1999):
• Forming a strategic vision of where the healthcare organization is headed through providing long-term direction, identifying what the organization is trying to become, and infusing the organization with a sense of purposeful action
• Setting objectives by converting the strategic vision into specific performance outcomes for the healthcare organization to achieve