Organizational ethics and the management of health care organizations

Abstract

What is organizational ethics? Organizational ethics is an emerging area in health care management. Health care organizations have tended to focus on the ethical issues faced by clinicians in the direct delivery of clinical care (i.e., clinical ethics) or by researchers in the conduct of clinical research (i.e., research ethics). Organizational ethics is concerned with the ethical issues faced by managers and board members and the ethical implications of organizational decisions and practices on patients, staff, and the community. Recent emphasis on ethics in health services accreditation and health care leader certification is contributing to a search for leading practices in organizational ethics. However, there remain significant gaps in knowledge about what ethical issues health care leaders are facing or how organizational ethics can be approached in practice.