Robin M. Self

Assessing newcomers' changing commitments to the organization during the first 6 months of work

The authors examined changes in the level of 4 organizationally relevant constructs and their reconstitution by newcomers to a work organization using J. Schaubroeck and S. G. Greens (1989) confirmatory factor analytic procedure. Results support a general decline in levels (alpha changes) of organizationally relevant attitudes over 3 time periods (1st day, and the 3rd- and 6th-month employment anniversaries). The pattern of decline, though, varied after accounting forgamma and beta changes. Indeed, for 2 of the variables (affective and continuance commitment; N. J. Allen & J. P. Meyer, 1990), the presence of gamma changes (changes in the underlying construct) were so dramatic as to render the pattern of mean differences uninterpretable

Alternative Quality Measures and Profitability of Hospital Inpatient Services Offered

In this analysis, we study the relationship between hospital quality and hospital profits for a sample of 88 Alabama (USA) hospitals. Quality is measured by three groups of procedures performed on newly admitted patients as suggested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Health Quality Alliance (HQA) as well as a weighted quality measure. Profit is measured for eight hospital services. Profits from cardiac care were most responsive to the quality measures studied. Moreover, profits from six of the inpatient services increased as the weighted quality measure increased. Finally, in two cases quality increased with the relative number of employees a hospital utilized.

The Link Between Hospital Quality and Profitability of Outpatient Services Offered

The analysis studies the relationship between hospital quality and hospital profits for a sample of 94 Alabama hospitals. Quality is measured by four groups of procedures performed on newly-admitted patients as suggested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Profit is measured for five outpatient services. We find that the quality of inpatient care predicts profits in three of the five outpatient services. We also find that the association is due primarily to an increase in outpatient volume in response to quality rather than to higher profit margins. The notable exception is for profit margins for cardiac and surgical care.