West, Michael and Borrill, Carol S and Dawson, Jeremy F and Scully, Judy and Carter, Matthew and Anelay, Stephen and Patterson, Malcolm G and Waring, Justin (2002) The link between the management of employees and patient mortality in acute hospitals. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 13 (8). pp. 1299-1310. ISSN 0958-5192
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The relationship between human resource management practices and organizational performance (including quality of care in health-care organizations) is an important topic in the organizational sciences but little research has been conducted examining this relationship in hospital settings. Human resource (HR) directors from sixty-one acute hospitals in England (Hospital Trusts) completed questionnaires or interviews exploring HR practices and procedures. The interviews probed for information about the extensiveness and sophistication of appraisal for employees, the extent and sophistication of training for employees and the percentage of staff working in teams. Data on patient mortality were also gathered. The findings revealed strong associations between HR practices and patient mortality generally. The extent and sophistication of appraisal in the hospitals was particularly strongly related, but there were links too with the sophistication of training for staff, and also with the percentages of staff working in teams.