Employees' views of their work experience in private hospitals.

Employees in 10 private for-profit hospitals responded to questionnaires regarding their work experiences, hospital facilities, and employer. Replicated results identified themes of employee opinions, including: Supervision, The Employer, Role Significance, Hospital Image, Competitiveness, Benefits, Cohesiveness, and Work Load. Only scores on the Role Significance scale differed between clinical and non-clinical respondents, with the former scoring higher. Survey methodology can be used to define an organization's culture from the employee's viewpoint. Their perception of this culture helps determine their behavior at work and their conveying the image of their facility in the community. The recent emphasis on quality improvement and 'bottom-up' management presents a particularly well-suited opportunity for the effective use of surveys. Quality improvement efforts involve employee groups which empower workers as active diagnosticians, internal consultants, and decision markers. Survey defined 'action levers' portray avenues along which such constructive efforts might be directed. Also, surveys identify themes through which management can evaluate organizational performance overall and department by department, building in means by which those responsible for units of the hospital can be accountable for achieving measurable results.