title: Metaphors, models and organisational ethics in health care.
abstract: Crucial to discussions in organisational ethics is an evaluation of the metaphors and models we use to understand the organisations we are discussing. I briefly defend this contention and evaluate three possible models: the current corporate model, an orchestrator model which puts hospitals in the same class as malls and airports, and a community model. I argue that the corporate and orchestrator model push to the background some important organisational ethics issues and bias us inappropriately towards certain solutions. Furthermore, I argue that the community model allows these to be more easily brought up. I also respond to the likely challenge that hospitals really are corporations by arguing that this is not relevant to evaluations of the appropriateness of the corporate model.
authors.affiliation: Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCrickerd
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D003132:Commerce / Q000592:standards; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000592:standards*; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011362:Professional Corporations / Q000592:standards; D011641:Public Relations