Building a Successful Healthcare Organisation

In the UK alone some 1.3 million people are employed in the delivery of health care services in the public sector. Taking account of the private sector the number is probably over 10% of the UK workforce. There is therefore a market for a text on the psychology of behaviour at work focused specifically on this group of people. This is particularly so because the training of health care professionals is largely focused on the delivery of health care rather than organization of health services and people management. However, given the increasing evidence of the links between people management, organization and effectiveness of health care delivery, the training and practice of health care professionals is shifting emphasis, as evidenced by the work of the Institute of Healthcare Management, recent initiatives including Leading an Empowered Organization (LEO) and the National Nursing Leadership Project. The focus of this book is on understanding the links between organizational culture, people management, organizational and work factors and employee health, employee performance and organizational effectiveness, specifically in relation to health care organizations. Patient care and health outcomes are the key organizational effectiveness measures of health care organizations and these outcomes are therefore the central issue addressed in this book.