Thinking Beyond Management Theory

Thinking Beyond Management Theory

DescriptionJoshua Kim’s review of a recent book by Louis Hyman traverses a brief history of the contingent workforce in corporate America. Health care is not insulated from these dynamics. For instance, Jewish Hospital (Louisville, Kentucky), both before and since its entanglements with the KentuckyOne Health conglomeration, relies heavily on contractors. Whether for clinical or administrative roles, contingent health care workers are not considered employees of the organizations in which they operate; instead, the employment of these contractors is governed entirely by contractual agreement between the hospital system and the agency providing these “temporary” workers. I deliberately wrap the word temporary in quotation marks to help expose the misuse of that term in these contracts. Health information management (HIM) functions at KentuckyOne facilities are entirely handled now by Conifer Health Solutions, a national contractor. Although temporary in the sense that contracts—regardless of their duration—are temporal legal and financial agreements, most employees of Conifer have worked and will continue to work for KentuckyOne in an ongoing capacity, though not always at the same facility, nor necessarily exclusively within the KentuckyOne system. Some contingent employees, however, have worked in the Jewish/KentuckyOne system for decades at this point. Thus, temporary is relative to how the organizational culture in KentuckyOne views permanency.
These “permanent temps,” as Kim refers to them, often carry significant subject matter expertise within organizations like KentuckyOne, where they may have been employed much longer than the executives to whom they report. Further, especially with the Conifer contract, we are not just seeing front-line employees designated as “permanent temps,” but leadership: people with master’s degrees in health care administration, informatics, and human resources. As a result, contractors with leadership responsibilities become involved with performance improvement and quality management initiatives. I want this to be the major point you consider.
As Kim mentions, this brand of management philosophy helped “convince corporate America about the benefits of a lean and agile workforce.” At the same time, [t]he idea of a social compact between a company and its employees ha[s] no place in this new world of the lean corporation” (2018). This being said, how do we assure performance improvement when such nuances are rarely explicit within corporate contracts? What incentives do “permanent temps” have to adopt the corporate philosophies and missions of the organizations in which they work, but to which they do not belong? Given that high turnover in contingent workers should be expected, what sorts of measures can health care organizations take to ensure continuity in quality management when the parties involved at the outset of a PI project may not be those who maintain its longevity? What do you see as the most detrimental side of contingent employment in health care administrative functions? Further, what are the benefits specifically for PI and QM, if any?
Using your own analysis and evaluation of PI and QM respond to these quandaries. You must support your argument with reputable external sources. You may judge which sort of data or evidence best supports your claims and include that in your respond As always, rely on APA citation style. You do not have to engage with any set number of other students, but MUST reply to any questions posed to you from either peers or the instructor.
Reference
Kim, J. (2018). “ ‘Temp’ and the Lean University.” Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved September 10, 2018:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/temp-and-lean-university (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.