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Strategic operations management decisions and professional performance in U.S. HMOs
Author(s) -
Heineke Janelle
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of operations management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.649
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1873-1317
pISSN - 0272-6963
DOI - 10.1016/0272-6963(95)00035-6
Subject(s) - business , workforce , control (management) , service (business) , quality (philosophy) , work (physics) , affect (linguistics) , performance management , workforce management , process (computing) , process management , marketing , operations management , management , psychology , computer science , philosophy , communication , epistemology , economics , engineering , economic growth , operating system , mechanical engineering
Professional service organizations are becoming an increasingly important segment of the service sector in the U.S. but little attention has been paid to the management of these organizations, particularly in relation to technical performance. This paper reports the findings of a survey of managers of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) which related operations management decisions about organization, workforce management, quality management and planning and control, to clinical process and outcome performance. This research demonstrates that managerial decisions do affect clinical performance in HMOs. These findings have implications for both researchers and practitioners. For researchers, the study provides a framework for future research on the important link between management decisions and technical performance in professional service organizations. For practitioners, this study suggests that technical performance will be enhanced when professional work is appropriately managed.