Strain experienced by executives in nine hospitals in Los Angeles County and its relation with size of organization, number of successions, and ways of coping (California)
Description
Social workers reach executive positions without academic training in management theory and practice. Executive succession served as a model management area for this study which explored three relationships of the strain experienced by executives during and after a management succession episode. The study sample comprised 20 top-level executives in 4 small ( 2500 personnel) general medical surgical hospitals in Los Angeles County. Four hypotheses were tested: (1) perceptions of the length of succession episodes vary significantly among executives; (2) the larger the medical center, the less the strain reported by the executives, during and after succession; (3) executives who have gone through more total successions in their managerial career, and more successions at executive levels, will report less strain during the most recent succession; and (4) executives who report more ways of coping with stressful situations will report less strain. Strain scores were determined using the questionnaire of Caplan et al. to measure 39 items of job dissatisfaction, boredom, workload dissatisfaction, somatic complaints, anxiety, depression and irritation. The Ways of Coping score was determined using the Folkman and Lazarus questionnaire using 24 items related to job situations. The hypothesis that perceived duration of succession varies widely among executives was strongly supported; the range reported was 0.5 to 24 months. The second hypothesis, that strain is related to hospital size, was not supported by the data. The third hypothesis, that an increased number of managerial and executive successions was associated with less strain was also not supported. The fourth hypothesis, relating strain with the number of ways of coping, was also not supported by the data. Limitations of the study and implications for social work and for further research are discussed, including the possibility that small and large hospitals may be similarly bureaucratized, that factors outside of the work situation might be correlated with strain experienced by executives during succession episodes and that management training included in social work education should pay attention to the special needs of female social workers, who are seriously under-represented in executive positions