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Job-seeking success relates to engagement with specific job-seeking strategies, so it is important to understand the beliefs that job-seekers have of them. Using multiple methods, this study aims to establish a typology of the beliefs job-seekers have about strategies, create and validate a measure of these beliefs and relate them to job-seeking behavior.

In the first sample, the authors interviewed 77 job-seekers about their job-seeking strategy beliefs. The authors then created a measure and verified its psychometric properties using 396 job-seekers. Finally, using a sample of 628 job-seekers, the authors continued their evaluation of the measure and related strategy beliefs to job-seeker motivation and behavior.

The authors initially identified 21 beliefs about job-seeking strategies. The authors ultimately found support for 15 dimensions, replicating the factor structure across samples. Strategies are perceived to differ on most beliefs, and eight beliefs had unique relationships with job-seeker effort and/or motivation.

The study results can help organizations and job-seekers increase job-seeking motivation by targeting specific beliefs found to have the strongest relationships with strategy use.

This is the first measure of job-seeking strategy beliefs that generalizes across strategies. Furthermore, the authors establish several beliefs that have the strongest relationships with job-seeking motivation.

Healthcare organizations have addressed current error issues by adopting quality programs, which usually include strategic human resource management (HRM). However, little research has focused on the determinants of successful quality programs at healthcare organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the centrality of strategic HRM for addressing healthcare errors, error reduction barriers, quality management processes and practices, quality program results, and competitive advantage.

The methodology of this study involves the analysis of questionnaire data from the quality and/or risk directors of 587 US hospitals by factor analysis and regression analysis.

The findings focus on highly statistically significant relationships of strategic HRM with antecedent healthcare error sources, error reduction barriers, and quality management processes and practices, as well as the strategic HRM consequences of perceived quality program results and sustainable competitive advantage.

The limitations of perceptual data and common method variance are checked. Future research could investigate international effects.

The practical implications are that hospital errors can be successfully addressed with effective strategic HRM, quality management processes, and quality management practices.

The original contribution of this paper is the centrality of strategic HRM as a determinant of successful quality programs at healthcare organizations.

Rapidly rising healthcare costs, partially due to preventable medical errors, have led hospitals to redouble their process improvement (PI) efforts. The purpose of this paper is to examine how PI initiatives mediate the effect of medical error sources to enhance three hospital outcomes (patient safety, operational effectiveness, and competitiveness).

Drawing from Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the authors develop a framework to explore three PI initiatives: Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), Six Sigma Initiatives (SSI), and Lean Management Initiatives (LMI). Hierarchical regression analysis is employed to test the proposed model, using data from a nationwide survey of 210 US hospitals.

For enhancing patient safety outcomes, it was found that CQI and LMI were significant in mediating hospital error sources; however, SSI was not significant after accounting for the other two PI types. For improving organizational effectiveness, CQI and SSI were significant; whereas LMI was not significant over and above the other two PI types. Finally, only SSI was significant for superior sustainable competitive advantage.

The paper provides insight into which PI initiatives were most effective for various hospital outcomes. The findings can benefit healthcare practitioners as they select among different PI programs for enhancing healthcare results. Limitations of the study include the use of perceptual measures, relatively small sample size, and potential alternate relationships relevant to the outcome variables.

This is the first study to explore the mediating effects of three PI programs for the impact of medical errors on each of three hospital outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology was applied to a medical records department (MRD) of a hospital in India to reduce the Turn-Around-Time (TAT) of medical records preparation process and thus to improve the productivity and performance of the department.

The research reported in this paper is based on a case study carried out using LSS approach and in improving the medical records preparation process.

The root causes for the problem were identified and validated through data-based analysis from LSS tool box, at different stages in the project. As a result of this project, the TAT was reduced from average 19 minutes to eight minutes and the standard deviation was reduced by one-tenth, which was a remarkable achievement for department under study. This was resulted in the reduction in the work-in-process inventory of medical records from 40 units to 0 at the end of the day. Project in-turn reduced the staffing level from the earlier level of six to a current level of four.

The paper is based on a single case study executed in IP-MRD of a single hospital and hence there is limitation in generalizing the specific results from the study. But the approach adopted and the learning from this study can be generalized.

This paper will be helpful for those professionals who are interested in implementing LSS to healthcare organization to improve the productivity and performance.