Model for formulating competitive strategy: the supplementary health sector case

How technological innovations in performance measurement systems overcome management challenges in healthcare

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to analyse how technological innovations in performance measurement systems make it possible to overcome some of the challenges that public healthcare organizations face where management and control are concerned. The changes that could be applied to the performance measurement system of healthcare organisations were analysed together with an evaluation of the responses developed in order to achieve these changes.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper contains an in-depth case-study of a public university hospital which utilises an innovative information system.

Findings

The case-study highlights how technological innovations in performance measurement systems impact the management and monitoring information system in a public university hospital, through the implementation of a multidimensional management dashboard.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of this paper is that only one case-study is analysed, albeit in depth, while it would be interesting to consider more public university hospitals.

Practical implications

The paper highlights the fundamental role of middle management in change processes in the healthcare sector.

Originality/value

The case-study highlights how critical the active involvement of middle management is in performance measurement and management, and how this is achieved thanks to the adoption of a simple, clear method which ensures comprehensible communication of the objectives, as well as the measurement of performance by means of radar plots.

Ascertaining service quality and medical practitioners' sensitivity towards surgical instruments using SERVQUAL

Purpose

Service quality (SQ) has become an essential and indispensable component in healthcare and many other industries. SQ can deliver guaranteed stakeholder value and consequent consumer delight in the healthcare sector. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationships of various SERVQUAL elements with respect to the SQ of surgical instrument suppliers among surgeons.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a sample of 112 surgeons working in the USA using the “snowball sampling” technique. A few standardised questionnaires, including SERQUAL, were used to collect the data. R-programming was used to perform structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis on the collected data.

Findings

The research study identified that service delivery factors and the SQ of surgical instruments contribute significantly towards medical practitioner sensitivity in the US healthcare industry. Word of mouth (WOM) did not have any significant impact on the medical practitioners' sensitivity.

Originality/value

A review of related literature revealed that studies that examine the surgeon's perspectives of SQ are scarce. Thus, the present study is directed towards this gap in literature. The findings of the study are significant in nature and have made a substantial contribution to management literature.

The relationship between quality and governance mechanisms

Purpose

Recent literature has highlighted the importance of quality and governance in supply networks. Usually, the relationships between the actors are complex, comprising both formal and informal interactions. Despite recent advances in quality and governance in supply networks, extant literature highlights the lack of quality in healthcare supply-chain networks in relation to governance mechanisms. This paper aims to investigate the role of governance mechanisms and their influence on the quality of healthcare supply networks, and assumes that governance instruments can support quality performance.

Design/methodology/approach

A multiple-case research approach was employed. Six organisations in the Brazilian healthcare sector were analysed (four operate only with renal replacement therapy, one is a material supplier, and one operates with renal replacement therapy and collective procurement).

Findings

Findings showed that there is no formalised supply network structure in these organisations. A possible consequence of this is that the supply-network governance is dominated by informal relationships. In the quality dimension, managers' awareness is limited, but there are mechanisms in place to control the quality of the materials.

Practical implications

Healthcare managers can actively invest in the social aspects of the relationship between buyer and supplier, such as trust and commitment, thus increasing responsiveness in patient care. However, this informal procedure can lead to problems with tracking and reliability, ultimately leading to quality problems. Therefore, it is recommended that formal and informal governance instruments be used jointly to improve service quality.

Originality/value

This study suggests that the integration of formal and informal mechanisms of governance can improve the quality of supply networks. Additionally, if the administrative process is purely formal, network relationships and their efficiency will be impaired.

The linkages between business strategies, culture, and compensation using Miles & Snow’s and Hofstede culture framework in conglomerate firms

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkages among different employee benefits, business strategies and organizational cultures. The manufacturing and service sectors in the conglomerate industry are investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) are used for the statistical verification of the hypotheses, whereas Levene’s test and Wilk–Shapiro tests are conducted to verify the assumptions of ANOVA.

Findings

The results reported indicate that the social class benefits (SCB) and long-term benefits (LTB) are high in defenders as compared to prospectors and innovators, whereas group incentive schemes (GIS) are lower in the defender, and power distance and uncertainty avoidance are higher in the defender as compared to prospector and innovator.

Practical implications

This paper highlights that if mismatch among the employee benefits, strategy and culture occurs, then it becomes a hurdle to the good performance of organization and employee. The proposed model focuses on the effective coherence among the strategy, culture and benefits for leveraging the business processes. This research along with enriching the already existing literature would also act as a guidelines to practitioners implementing organizational change and development and to the academicians for extending the research in this area.

Originality/value

It has been established in the study that employee benefits (SCB, LTB, GIS and result-oriented benefits) are completely different for innovators, defenders and prospectors for conglomerate firms.

Factors that influence the quality of services provided by the bus rapid transit system

Purpose

This study analyses the factors that can influence the quality of service provided by the bus rapid transit (BRT) system in the state of Pernambuco. It is incipient, considering that the system was implemented in this state in 2014 to the World cup. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to identify the factors considered important for the services provided by this system and their impact on perceived quality.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed the data using exploratory factorial analysis, and linear and quantile regression techniques. Regarding the classification, this research is applied, exploratory, descriptive and in the form of a case study describing the situation experienced by the users of BRT in Pernambuco.

Findings

The results showed that it was possible to identify five factors that impact the level of satisfaction of the offered services: fluency in the provision of the service; staff training; physical conditions in the provision of the service; convenience/accessibility; and integration between transport lines.

Originality/value

With initial identification, factors 1, 3, 4 and 5 have been found to have an impact on overall service quality in a positive and statistically significant way. Factors 3 and 4 have a different impact with high- and low-quality standard perceived by users, and these should be the guiding elements by companies in establishing actions to improve the services offered.