About the Book

The eighth edition of this best-selling text continues to offer proven, hands-on, practical applications of both classic and current management principles in the healthcare setting. Packed with strategies,
techniques, and tools to build or reinforce your management skills and meet the never-ending challenges that one may face daily as a healthcare supervisor, students and professionals alike will benefit from this classic guidebook that is now more reader-friendly and accessible.

About the Author

Charles R. McConnell, MBA, CM-Human Resource and Editorial Consultant, Ontario, New York Charles R. McConnell started his professional career in industrial and management engineering, followed by 29 years in human resources management in the healthcare industry. During those years he served as a human resources manager for affiliated organizations of a multi-facility healthcare system based in Rochester, New York, and earlier as a senior consultant with the Management and Planning Services division of the Hospital Association of New York State. He currently is an independent human resources and editorial consultant who has published more than 20 books and numerous articles, and serves as editor of a quarterly professional journal. He holds a BS in engineering and an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has served as adjunct faculty at several colleges.

Table of Contents:
Preface • About the Author Part I-THE SETTING Chapter 1: The Evolving Supervisory Role • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Reinventing the Healthcare Organization • The (Whirl)Winds of Change • The Broadest Shifting Paradigms: The Only Constant Is Change • Organizational Priority Number One: The Bottom Line • Then Came Reengineering • Can We “Reinvent” the Hospital? • Healthcare Paradigms and Their Effects • The Evolving Role of the Healthcare Manager • Job Security in the New Environment • Health Care Versus “Industry” • Where Does Your Department Fit? • A Word about Quality • To Embark on a Successful Supervisory Career • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: Where Does Your Department Fit? Chapter 2: The Volatile Healthcare Environment • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Predictions Are Strange Phenomena • The Managed Care “Solution” • The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 • Marketing Health Care • Healthcare Settings • For Consideration: Predictions • External Pressure: An Area of Continuing Concern • The Changing Face of Healthcare Management • Healthcare Reform: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: Responding to External Pressure Chapter 3: The Nature of Supervision: Health Care and Everywhere • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Paid to Make Decisions? • Born to Work or Watch? • The Dual Nature of the Supervisor’s Role • The Peter Principle Revisited • The Working Trap • Nothing to Do? • The Responsibilities of Healthcare Management • The Nature of Supervision • Truly Paid to Make Decisions? • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: Your Two Hats Chapter 4: Management and Its Basic Functions • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: A Tough Day for the New Manager • Definitions, Titles, and Other Intangibles • Introducing the Basic Management Functions • Management Functions in Brief • Planning • Organizing • Directing • Coordinating • Controlling • The Management Functions in Action • Emphasis • Processes Versus People • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: Balancing the Functions Part II-THE SUPERVISOR AND SELF Chapter 5: Delegation and Empowerment: Forming Some Good Habits • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Delegation for the Wrong Reasons, or “If You Want Something Done Right...” • Taken for Granted • The Nature of Delegation • What about “Empowerment”? • Why Delegate? • Failure to Delegate • Looking Upward as well as Downward: The Personal Approach to Delegation • The Pattern: The Nuts and Bolts of Delegation • “If You Want Something Done Right...“ • Authority and Responsibility • Freedom to Fail • Building the Habit • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: To Whom Should You Delegate? Chapter 6: Time Management Expanding the Day without Stretching the Clock • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: The Manager and the Sales Representative • Time and Time Again • Why Become More Time Conscious? • The Time Wasters • The Time Savers • Time Management and Stress Management: Inseparable Activities • Time-Wasting Pressures and the Supervisor’s Response • The Unrenewable Resource • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case Ten Minutes to Spare? Chapter 7: Self-Management and Personal Supervisory Effectiveness • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: The Case of the Vanishing Day • It Starts with You • Initiative • Barriers to Effectiveness • Organization • Individual Planning and Goal Setting • The Increasing Importance of Prioritizing • Stress and the Supervisor • Effective Use of Time • How Well Suited Are You to the Supervisory Role? • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: The Effectiveness Checklist Part III-THE SUPERVISOR AND THE EMPLOYEE Chapter 8: Interviewing: Start Strong to Recruit Successfully • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration : Potential Interview Questions? • The Manager and the Interview • Candidates Outside and Inside • Preparing for the Interview • Guidelines for Questioning • The Actual Interview • Follow-Up • Questions for Review and Discussion • Role-Play: Would You Hire This Person? Chapter 9: Leadership and the Supervisor • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: One Boss Too Many • Introducing Leadership • Patterns of Leadership • Some Assumptions about People • Style and Circumstances • Outmoded Views • Leadership’s Primary Characteristic • Word Play: Leadership Versus Management • Can You Lead “By the Book”? • An Employee’s View • The Visible Supervisor • Leading by Default • True Leadership • Return to “One Boss Too Many” • Communicating with Employees: Leadership in Action • Empathy as an Asset • Developing Mutual Understanding • Barriers to Effective Communication • Listening • Diversity in the One-to-One Relationship • For Effective Interpersonal Communication • The Open-Door Attitude • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: A View of You as a Leader Chapter 10: When the Employees Are Professionals • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration • Defining the Professional • Nonhealth Professionals in Health Care • The Essential Team Approach • Professional Treatment and Professional Behavior • Judgment: Professional Versus Managerial • Motivation and the Professional • Turnover • Appraising the Professional’s Performance • Credibility of the Professional’s Superior • Delegation: The Same but Different • The Professional and Change • Employee Problems • The Professional as a Supervisor • Unions and the Professional Employee • For Consideration: A Disagreement Between Professionals • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The Bully Chapter 11: Motivation: Intangible Forces and Slippery Rules • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration : Always the Last to Know • Satisfaction in Work • Demands on the Organization • Motivating Forces: The Basic Needs • What Makes Them Perform? • Money as a Motivator • Learn What Motivates Your Employees: Look to Yourself • Why the Last to Know? • Motivation and the First-Line Supervisor • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The Promotion Chapter 12: Performance Appraisal: Cornerstone of Employee Development • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration “It’s Review Time Again” • Appraisal and the Manager • The Objectives of Appraisal • Traditional Appraisal Methods • Common Appraisal Problems • Why Appraisal Programs Often Fail • What about Jack’s Evaluation? • Why Appraise at All? • Requirements of an Effective Appraisal System • The Changing Language of Appraisal • Making Performance Appraisal Legally Defensible • Standard-Based Appraisal: A Long-Range Target • Constructive Appraisal • The Appraisal Interview • Living with an Existing System • A Simple Objective • Questions for Review and Discussion • Role-Play: Ms. Winston’s Appraisal Chapter 13: Criticism and Discipline: Guts, Tact, and Justice • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration : Did He Have It Coming? • The Need for Rules • Criticism • Perhaps He Had Something Coming • Discipline • Nonpunitive Discipline • Behavioral Contracting • Coaching: Stopping Trouble Before It Starts • Guts, Tact, and Justice • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: A Good Employee, but Chapter 14: The Problem Employee and Employee Problems • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: What Do We Do about a First-Class Grouch? • Is There Such a Person as a “Problem Employee”? • Dealing with the “Problem Employee”? • Seven Guidelines • A Special Case: The Dead-End Employee • Absenteeism • Abuse of Sick Time • The Troubled Employee • One and the Same? • Special Cases: Some Signs of the Times • The Real “Problem” • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The Great Stone Face Chapter 15: The Supervisor and the Human Resource Department • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration A Favor or a Trap? • “Personnel” Equals People • A Vital Staff Function • A Service of Increasing Value • Learning about Your HR Department • Putting the HR Department to Work • Wanted: Well-Considered Input • Understanding Why as well as What • With Friends Like This • Emphasis On Service • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: Where Can Human Resources Help? Part IV-THE SUPERVISOR AND THE TASK Chapter 16: Ethics and Ethical Standards • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Is the Boss Always the Boss? • Ethics and the Healthcare Manager • Medical Ethics: Some of the Issues • Business Ethics and the Healthcare Organization • When Codes Clash: Mason Versus Green • Addressing Ethical Issues • Management’s Responsibilities: A Top-Down Obligation • But It Remains Everyone’s Job • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: What Is Appropriate, What Is Not Chapter 17: Decisions, Decisions • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Deciding Under Pressure • A Fact of Life • The Basic Decision-Making Process • Constraints • Risk, Uncertainty, and Judgment • The No-Decision Option • The Range of Decisions • Responsibility and Leadership • Problem Awareness: Often an Essential Pre-Step • No Magic Formula • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The New Copy Machine Chapter 18: Management of Change: Resistance Is Where You Find It • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Delayed Change of Command • The Nature of Change • Inflexibility or Resistance? • Changing with an Evolving Role • Why Resistance? • Deadly Delays: Revisiting Mr. Smith • The Supervisor’s Approach • True Resistance • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: Surprise! Chapter 19: Communication: Not by Spoken Words Alone • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: The Wilson Letter, or, the Agents of Wordiness • The Written Word • Sources of Help • Guidelines for Better Letters and Memos • Changing Old Habits • Sample Letter • Attacking the Agents of Wordiness • Other Writing • Technology Strikes: When the Message Is an Email • A Matter of Practice • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: The Copy Machine Letter Chapter 20: How to Arrange and Conduct Effective Meetings • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: The Conference • “Let’s Schedule a Meeting” • Management by Committee • Types of Meetings • Meeting Preparation • Leading a Meeting • Cleaning Up “The Conference” • Videoconferencing • Use or Abuse? • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: Your Word Against His Chapter 21: Budgeting and Cost Control • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: ‘’What’s a Budget Besides Lots of Work I Don’t Have Time for?” • Introducing the Budget • The Total Budget • Illustration: The Diagnostic Imaging Department Expense Budget • Staffing and Scheduling Considerations • The Budgeting Process • “Finished” Is Just Begun • Lots of Work? Certainly • Control: Awareness Plus Action • Cost Control and the Department Supervisor • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: “Juggling” Your Budget Chapter 22: Quality and Productivity: Sides of the Same Coin • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Caught in the Elevator • The Total Quality Movement: Just “Excellence” Again? • Productivity “Recycled” • Sides of the Same Coin • Quality Versus Cost and Output • An “Elevator Speech” • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: In Search of-? Chapter 23: Teams, Team Building, and Teamwork • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Can You Build an Effective Team from the “Enemy Camps?” • Types of Teams • The Project or Employee Team • The Departmental Team • Team Building and Its Purposes • Recognizing Employee Potential • The Stages of Team Building • The Power of the Team: The Individual • Team Building and Leadership Style • Guidance for the Team Builder • Attitude and Commitment: Everyone’s • Helen Has Her Work Cut Out for Her • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The Silent Majority Chapter 24: Methods Improvement: Making Work-and Life-Easier • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration : Is There a Better Way to Accomplish This Task? • Edison-Plus • Room for Improvement • At the Center of Quality Management • The Methods Improvement Approach • The Tools and Techniques of Methods Improvement • Example: The Information Request • An Organized Approach to Methods Improvement • The Methods-Minded Attitude • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: “The Pencil” Chapter 25: Reengineering and Reduction-in-Force • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Expanding Responsibilities • Reengineering: Perception, Intent, and Reality • Reduction-in-Force and Beyond • Coping with Your Expanding Responsibilities • Resistance to Change: Coping with Dramatic Paradigm Shifts • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: Identifying for Layoff Chapter 26: Continuing Education: Your Employees and You • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: Cross-Training and the Supervisor • Why Continuing Education? • Commitment • Many Options • Your Employees • An Urgent and Expanding Need • Continuing Education and You • When There Is No Money • Your Key Role • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: The Skills Inventory Chapter 27: The Supervisor and the Law • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: What Kind of Employee? • Legal Guides for Supervisory Behavior • The National Labor Relations Act • Wage and Hour Laws • Equal Employment Opportunity • Other Pertinent Legislation • Special Concern: Sexual Harassment • Who Needs More Rules? • Questions for Review and Discussion • Exercise: Rates, Hours, and Overtime Chapter 28: Living with HIPAA • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: A Look at Privacy • Introducing HIPAA • The Intent and the Reality • Title II and Beyond • The Privacy Controversy • Respecting Privacy in a Public Setting • HIPAA and the Supervisor • Here to Stay • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: Privacy Versus the “Need to Know” • Appendix A: Typical Privacy Notice Chapter 29: Organizational Communication: Looking Up, Down, and Laterally • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: The Unrequested Information • What Goes Down May Not Come Up • Your Role in Organizational Communication • The Grapevine • Dealing with “The Unrequested Information” • Which Way Do You Face? • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The Crunch Chapter 30: Unions: Avoiding Them When Possible and Living with Them When Necessary • Chapter Objectives • For Consideration: The Confrontation • Can Unionization Be Avoided? • Health Care: More and More a Special Case • The Supervisor’s Position • The Organizing Approach • Unequal Positions • Your Active Role • Handling “The Confrontation” • The Bargaining Election • If the Union Wins • Decertification • Questions for Review and Discussion • Case: The Organizer Annotated Bibliography List of Quotations Index