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The Institute of Medicine’s goal of health care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, efficient, timely, and equitable won’t be accomplished primarily through policy reform. Health care organizations individually and collectively must learn to innovate, change, and improve continuously. Health care organizations are made up of individuals, groups, and teams their customers, suppliers, and employees who make each organization unique. Successfully leading as a manager in this context requires understanding and applying knowledge about how people and groups act in organizations. People and groups interrelate with each other, with the organization, and within the system in which they work; and the health care system presents distinctive challenges and constraints. This course aims to help health care managers understand organizations and organizational behavior through discussion of case studies of organizational challenges, hands-on exercises, and contemporary and seminal literature addressing major theoretical perspectives on organizations. We will examine both macro issues (that impact organizations as a whole) and micro issues (that impact individuals and teams). Written assignments are designed to allow students to reflect on and apply lessons drawn from personal experience in organizations.
Faculty: Sara Singer