David L. Loudon

The Essentials of Marketing Research : Text and Cases

Part I: The Marketing Process and Decision Making 1. Introduction to Marketing Research 2. Ethics in Marketing Research Part II: Secondary Data and Research Designs 3. Secondary Data 4. Research Designs: Exploratory and Qualitative Research 5. Research Designs: Descriptive and Causal Research Part III: Measurement, Data Collection and Sampling 6. Measurement 7. Primary Data Collection 8. Designing the Data-Gathering Instrument 9. Sampling Methods and Sample Size 10. Fielding the Data-Gathering Instrument Part IV: Data Analysis and Reporting 11. Analyzing and Interpreting Data for Decisions 12. Advanced Data Analysis 13. The Research Report Part V: Cases

Breaking Bad News in Healthcare Organizations: Application of the Spikes Protocol.

Organizational downsizing has increased exponentially worldwide and is also affecting the healthcare industry. It is one thing to speak abstractly of the need to reduce costs and quite another to actually tell a worker the bad news that he or she has been laid off. This paper offers practical advice to healthcare managers on conducting unpleasant conversations with employees based on a widely used medical model—the SPIKES protocol. This strategy has been extensively employed by physicians and other health care professionals who frequently communicate negative information to patients and is offered as an approach that can be easily and effectively adapted by healthcare managers when they must tell a person they have been terminated. Although breaking the bad news of a cutback will never be easy, having a plan of action that entails sound business and medical advice and is also the necessary thing to do can help firms carefully manage and execute reorganizations for the well-being of the organization and the terminated worker.