What specific skills are employers and recruiters looking for in physician executive candidates? Here are the top dozen characteristics that were invariably mentioned in interviews with high profile headhunters, as well as in analyzing open job orders. The most sought-after skill is leadership. Employers want someone who has courage. Expect this list to change in 1997 as the industry changes. However, there will be more additions than deletions, in keeping with overall trends toward higher, not lower, expectations of physician managers.

Institutional Management Teams↗

PubMed1996

What managers can find out from exit interviews.

What are the best ways to find out not only why people leave the organization, but how to improve the environment and increase productivity or those that stay? Exit interviews can give you hints about what's going on that you can't get any other way. You can learn more about worker expectations, even if they were disappointed, from exit interviews than from a hiring interview. Exit interviews can also show when situations are worsening before that becomes clear through official channels. An exit interview may reveal a developing pattern of departures before the statistics are tabulated. Here are some guidelines for finding out what's really going on without wrecking the political climate and sending turnover to new levels.

Efficiency, Organizational↗

PubMed1996

Why acting managers rarely survive.

Can acting managers win the job? Or are the scales tipped so far in the outside candidates' favor that it's not worth venturing into this shaky territory? If you want to be your former boss' successor, take note of the cautionary tales offered here. From power and control issues to strategies for protecting yourself if the unmentionable happens--you lose the position to some outsider--insights are offered on why you should think twice about accepting the acting manager job.

Employment↗

PubMed1996

Resolutions to make and keep.

From mastering the latest technology to becoming an industry expert, listed here are nine career resolutions to seriously consider for 1997. You needn't wait until January to make or implement resolutions that will build your body, your soul, or your career. Start today.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infects endothelial and spindle cells.

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), a vascular tumour that contains characteristic spindle cells forming slit-like spaces, may have an infectious aetiology. Recently, sequences of a new human herpesvirus, KSHV/HHV-8, have been identified in both HIV-associated and classical KS. We sought to identify the target cell of this virus in KS tumour tissue. Using PCR in situ hybridization (PCR-ISH) we show that KSHV/HHV-8 is present in the flat endothelial cells lining vascular spaces of KS lesions as well as in typical KS spindle cells. These findings show that KSHV/HHV-8 is present in the cell types thought to represent neoplastic cells in these lesions.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

PubMed1995

The politics of family leave.

There are many who would insist that the best laws from Washington, D.C., are those that aren't passed. A singular problem with many of the laws that are placed on the books is that their intended achievements are frequently largely overcome by unintended results. Such may be the case with the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. For all the good this law has done for those who need to take leaves of absence, it has added greatly to the woes of those who remain behind, the author says. Managers, she insists, will have to work diligently with the reactions of those who must accept additional workloads to accommodate the leaves of their colleagues.

Efficiency, Organizational↗

PubMed1995

Personal trainer, personal coach.

The increasing number of fresh faces in the management ranks, many of them with highly polished credentials but little in the way of practical experience in the work-a-day management world, has increased the need for a new consulting professional--the personal coach. There simply aren't enough volunteer mentors to accommodate the growing medical management profession. Whatever the conditions under which this new professional's services are sought, both the individual to be coached and the organization for which the individual works should approach the arrangement with care and planning. The author offers some guidance for making the arrangement pay off.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMed1995

Getting the most for your consulting dollars.

Major changes in the health care financing and delivery system have usually been accompanied by an increase in demand within the health care field for consulting services. The passage of Medicare/Medicaid in 1965 is one example. The passage of the DRG-based prospective pricing system in 1983 is another. Both spawned a substantial amount of work, and income, for consulting firms. Now the health care field is engaged in nearly total transformation as the forces of health care reform at the national level are met with myriad adjustments at the local and regional levels. Managed care, already a byword, is being strengthened by a multitude of so-called integrated system initiatives. It is not easy to survive, and the call is out to consultants to save the day, or at least stave off disaster. In the following four articles, Marilyn Kennedy, a member of the ACPE faculty and a consultant herself, gives some advice on how to make the consulting arrangement successful; three physician executives provide a glimpse at consults that have worked, and some that did not work.

Consultants↗

PubMed1995

Are you obsessed with interaction?

Too many organizations and managers, the author says, are using "interaction" among employees as a means to encourage them to buy-in, to stimulate teamwork, or to build morale. In too many cases, the forced interaction only serves to annoy or embarrass employees--or raise suspicions about management motives. Wise employees fear they will be burned if they open up and interact. There are better ways to run meetings, the author says, and she provides a few.

Group Processes↗

PubMed1995

The politics of mean.

Since mid-1990, there have been many signs that politics--especially relationships between middle management and the troops--have changed from annoying but rarely lethal to Mean, as in ornery, ugly, and sometimes downright grisly. Part of this has to be recession-related, but part comes from top management's attention having been diverted to survival issues. The loser has been the individual contributor in the organization. In laying out the reasons for this distressing turn of events, the author provides clear-cut advice on how to overcome it.

Employment↗

PubMed1995

The pitfalls of managing contingency workers.

Contingency workers have proven so cost effective that they may constitute half of the health care industry work force before the end of this century. However, because these workers don't have stakes in the companies and are bitter about losing their full-time jobs, they are often difficult to motivate and even more difficult to manage. In fact, their attitudes negatively affect the morale of their full-time coworkers and poison the overall work environment. The author offers some tips to make contingency workers feel more a part of organizations in hopes that their attitude and performance will improve.

Contract Services↗

PubMed1995

Management's latest worry: nonsexual harassment.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMed1995

Was that really funny? The politics of humor.

Everybody loves a comic--or do they? A Human Resources Department picked up a pattern when several departing employees, all excellent performers, said they liked their jobs but felt "excluded" from the camaraderie. One said he'd found the humor "barbed." Another said she's never seen anything funny in jokes that seemed to convulse everyone else. The past five years have been so gloomy, economically speaking, that, in many hospitals and health care organizations, laughter is a mega-event. But lately I've been listening to what employees joke about and watching how their humor affects others. Physician executives need to be alert to some kinds of humor that are weapons used by employees against other employees, their managers, and the company generally.

Economic Competition↗