The effects of managerial beliefs on service: privatization and discontinuation in local health departments.

This study examines the influence of Local Health Department (LHD) directors' managerial beliefs on the decision to privatize or discontinue personal health services. A stratified representative national sample of LHD directors was interviewed by telephone. Directors who believed temporary workers should be used wherever possible had about three times the odds of privatizing one or more personal health services. Directors who believed their department should focus exclusively on the core functions had more than ten times the odds of discontinuing at least one service. Declining revenue was not predictive of either privatization or discontinuation of personal health services.