Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T09:00:48.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fulfilling Institutional Responsibilities in Health Care: Organizational Ethics and the Role of Mission Discernment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

John A. Gallagher  and
Jerry Goodstein
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In this paper we highlight the emergence of organizational ethics issues in health care as an important outcome of the changing structure of health care delivery. We emphasize three core themes related to business ethics and health care ethics: integrity, responsibility, and choice. These themes are brought together in a discussion of the process of Mission Discernment as it has been developed and implemented within an integrated health care system. Through this discussion we highlight how processes of institutional reflection, such as Mission Discernment, can help health care organizations, as well as corporations, make critical choices in turbulent environments that further the core mission and values and fulfill institutional responsibilities to a broad range of stakeholders.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 2002 , pp. 433 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beauchamp, T. L. and Childress, J. F. 1989. Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., and Tipton, S. M. 1991. The Good Society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Bowie, N. 1991. “Moral Decision-Making and Multinationals.” Business Ethics Quarterly 1: 223–232.Google Scholar
Catholic Health Association. 1998. “Mission-Driven Market Strategies: Lessons from the Field.” Health Progress, July–August: 1–6.Google Scholar
Collier, J. 1998. “Theorising the Ethical Organization.” Business Ethics Quarterly 8(4): 621–654.Google Scholar
Collins, J. C. and Porras, J. I. 1994. Built to Last. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Connor, James L. 2000. “How to Heal Managed Care.” Commonweal, February 25, 2000: 17–18.Google Scholar
Daniels, N. 1979. “Wide Reflective Equilibrium and Theory Acceptance in Ethics.” Journal of Philosophy 76(5): 256–283.Google Scholar
DeGeorge, R. T. 1993. Competing with Integrity in International Business. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, J. 1960. Theory of the Moral Life. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1989. The Ethics of International Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. and Dunfee, T. 1999. Ties that Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Boston: Harvard University Business School Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. and Werhane, P. H. 1988. Ethical Issues in Business. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. and Preston, L. 1995. “The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, Implications.” Academy of Management Review 20: 65–91.Google Scholar
Emanuel, E. 1995. “On the Need for Institutional Structures Instead of Principles for Individual Cases.” The Journal of Clinical Ethics 6(4): 335–338.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E. 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E. and Gilbert, D. R. 1988. Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
French, P. A. 1984. Collective and Corporate Responsibility. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
French, P. A., Nesteruk, J., and Risser, D. T. 1992. Corporations in the Moral Community. Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Goodpaster, K. E. and Matthews, J. B. Jr. 1988. “Can a Corporation Have a Conscience?” In Donaldson, T. and Werhane, P. H. (eds.), Ethical Issues in Business. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 139–148.Google Scholar
Gray, B. H. 1991. The Profit Motive and Patient Care. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1991. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, trans. Lenhardt, C. and Nicholsen, S.W.Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jones, T. M. and Wicks, A. C. 1999. “Convergent Stakeholder Theory.” Academy of Management Review 24(2): 206–221.Google Scholar
Jones, T. M., and Goldberg, L. D. 1982. “Governing the Large Corporation: More Arguments for Public Directors.” Academy of Management Review 20: 404–437.Google Scholar
Jonsen, A. R., Siegler, M., and Winslade, W. J. 1992. Clinical Ethics, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.Google Scholar
Kant, I. 1956. Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Beck, L. W.Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, Inc.Google Scholar
Khusf, G. 1997. “Administrative and Organizational Ethics.” HEC Forum 9(4): 299–309.Google Scholar
Ladd, J. 1970. “Morality and the Ideal of Rationality in Formal Organizations.” The Monist 54.Google Scholar
Margolis, J. 1998. “Psychological Pragmatism and the Imperative of Aims: A New Approach for Business Ethics.” Business Ethics Quarterly 8(3): 409–432.Google Scholar
May, L. 1987. The Morality of Groups. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
McCoy, Charles. 1985. The Management of Values. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers.Google Scholar
Meyer, B. W. 1997. “Ensuring Accountability in Decision Making.” Health Progress, May–June: 30–32.Google Scholar
Moreno, J. D. 1995. Deciding Together. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morreim, E. H. 1995. Balancing Act. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Niebuhr, H. R. 1963. The Responsible Self. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers.Google Scholar
Orlando, J. 1999. “The Fourth Wave: The Ethics of Corporate Downsizing.” Business Ethics Quarterly 9(2): 295–314.Google Scholar
Paine, L. S. 1994. “Managing for Organizational Integrity.” Harvard Business Review, March–April: 106–117.Google Scholar
Paine, L. S. 1997. Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Integrity. Chicago: Irwin.Google Scholar
Phillips, R. A. and Margolis, J. D. 1999. “Toward an Ethics of Organizations.” Business Ethics Quarterly 9(4): 619–638.Google Scholar
Potter, R. L. 1996. “From Clinical Ethics to Organizational Ethics: The Second Stage of the Evolution of Bioethics.” Bioethics Forum 12(2): 3–12.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reiser, S. J. 1990. “Hospitals as Humane Corporations.” In Bulger, R. E., Reiser, S. J. (eds.), Integrity in Health Care Institutions: Humane Environments for Teaching, Inquiry, and Healing. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 121–129.Google Scholar
Reiser, S. J. 1994. “The Ethical Life of Health Care Organizations. Hastings Center Report 24(6): 28–35.Google Scholar
Rodwin, M. 1993. Medicine, Money, and Morals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schyve, P. M. 1996. “Patient Rights and Organization Ethics: The Joint Commission Perspective.” Bioethics Forum 12(2): 13–20.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R., Ruef, M., Mendel, P. J., and Caronna, C. A. 2000. Institutional Change and Healthcare Organizations. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. 1957. Leadership in Administration. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. 1992. The Moral Commonwealth. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Shortell, S. M., Gillies, R. R., Anderson, D. A., Erickson, K. M., and Mitchell, J. B. 1996. Remaking Health Care in America. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Spencer, E. M., Mills, A. E., Rorty, M. V., and Werhane, P. H. 2000. Organization Ethics in Health Care. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Starr, P. 1982. The Social Transformation of American Medicine. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Swanson, D. L. 1995. “Addressing a Theoretical Problem by Reorienting the Corporate Social Performance Model.” Academy of Management Review 20(2): 43–58.Google Scholar
Swanson, D. L. 1999. “Toward an Integrative Theory of Business and Society: A Research Strategy for Corporate Social Performance.” Academy of Management Review 24(3): 506–521.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. F. 1992. “Hospital Ethics.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 3: 203–210.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. 1998. Discourse and Knowledge. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tuohey, J. T. 1998. “Covenant Model of Corporate Compliance.” Health Progress, July–August: 70–75.Google Scholar
Watson, G. W., Shepard, J. M., Stephens, C. U., and Christman, J. C. 1999. “Ideology and the Economic Social Contract in a Downsizing Environment.” Business Ethics Quarterly 9(4): 659–672.Google Scholar
Weber, L. J. 1997. “Taking on Organizational Ethics.” Health Progress, May–June: 20–23, 32.Google Scholar
Werhane, P. H. 1998. “Moral Imagination and the Search for Ethical Decision Making in Management.” In New Approaches to Business Ethics, Ruffin Series No. 1. Charlottesville: Philosophy Documentation Center, 81–85.Google Scholar
Wicks, A. C. 1995. “The Business Ethics Movement: Where Are We Headed and What Can We Learn from our Colleagues in Bioethics?” Business Ethics Quarterly 5(3): 603–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wildes, K. 1997. “Institutional Identity, Integrity, and Conscience.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 7(4): 413.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, A. M. 2000. “Creating a Vision for the Twenty-First Century Organization.” Journal of Healthcare Management 45 (September/October): 294–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed