title: Strategy development in small hospitals: stakeholder management in constrained circumstances.
abstract: Small hospitals form a vital part of the health care safety net, serving communities that would often otherwise lack acute care. It is, therefore, important to understand how strategies unfold in these organizations. We used semistructured interviews to ask chief executive officers (CEOs) of seven small hospitals in Pennsylvania how they viewed their competitive environments and how their strategies evolved. Systematic semi-inductive analyses of these data reveal two major themes. First, CEOs of small hospitals perceive highly dynamic and hostile environments but do not stress complexity. Second, continual negotiations with key stakeholders facilitate the translation of CEOs' insights into organizational strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Administration, College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Shoou-Yih Daniel
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McClure
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baronner
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D016542:Chief Executive Officers, Hospital; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D006276:Health Facility Size; D006302:Health Services Research; D006780:Hospitals, Rural / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D010379:Peer Group; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010934:Planning Techniques