The educational needs of healthcare managers and executives in the key strategic areas of healthcare.

Management approaches used by many healthcare organizations lag behind those of similar competitive industries. The authors of this article report findings from an exploratory study of executives' perceptions of training needs in managerial strategy. The authors asked executives to rate the level of knowledge required for each of five key areas in strategic management and then to assess actual levels of knowledge in the field. They found that (a) strategic management is vital in this competitive industry, (b) there is a disconnect between what healthcare managers should know and what they actually know about the tasks of strategic management, and (c) more resources need to be devoted to strategic management training and the development of managers at all levels of healthcare organizations.