The studied managers applied various methods for decision-making. Most of the time they employed collaborative and authority delegation methods in decision-making; however, results oriented by team-work and occasioned methods were considered less. This result coincided with those of Salehi et al. (13). Researchers’ experiences have implied that cooperation leads to an increase in productivity and efficiency of the organization and quality of services. It also decreases conflict and negative resistance such as absence, delay and negligence (5). Managers should therefore be encouraged to use the team and collaborative decision-making methods in order to increase productivity.
We examined health system managers’ decision-making parameters that included crises, upstream documents, and up-to-date scientific theories. We determined that there was a greater effect from crises and upstream documents on decision-making. According to the managers’ views, in most cases (50% - 70%), crises had a considerable effect on their decision-making in the health system. The relationship between crises and all decision-making styles applied by the managers was significant and had a considerable effect on decision-making.
From the managers’ points of view, upstream documents were significant in consultative and collaborative styles of decision-making, and more important than other styles. Common scientific theories were less important than other decision-making parameters. Only in the authority submission style of decision-making was the relationship of common scientific theories significant.
The ability of the organization to enable effective fulfillment of responsibilities depends on the quality of the decisions made in the organization, and the quality of decisions depends on the quality of information being used (5, 14, 15). Among information sources used by the managers in decision-making, official information, internal experts’ opinions, and mental background are more welcomed, respectively. Mental background has a higher position than regulations and the opinions of external experts and senior managers. This fact, due to the difference among data received at different times, has often led to mistakes in decision-making and disturbances in the organization’s purposes. The present study’s results are consistent with previous results reported by Farzandipur, who stated that 55% of managers use statistical parameters (16). In the present research, we determined this rate to be 53%.
According to our study most managers (40% - 80%) were free in their decision-making. However, according to declarations of the teams under examination, restricting factors such as the authoritative style of upstream managers or lack of access to necessary infrastructures caused health system managers’ decisions to be unfulfilled.
At the micro level, the ‘board of trustee’ nature of private hospitals has been an important factor in their development. The change in organizational charts is more effective for managers’ decision-making at this level. As such, they should refer to their superiors for most decisions. In some cases, managers have stated that each section of the hospital’s staff is chosen by different people and there is no disciplined organizational chart.
Swift transitions in an organization’s external environment lead to more uncertainty in decision-making. New organizations, especially those associated with generating information worldwide, such as virtual channels (like those organizations whose managers are the population under study), must continually learn new concepts. These types of organizations are faced with increasing uncertainty in identifying and solving problems. One of the methods that can help decision-making in these organizations is to pay attention to cooperation and integration. When the problem is vague or the managers do not agree, discussion, negotiation, and integration are needed. In most cases if managers recognize an issue as a problem, the organization will approach its solution (17). Asking others’ opinions shows that the decision maker values others and their opinions, which leads to their increased interest and stronger motivation. Asking other’s opinions can lead to their improvement, as well as increasing creativity and innovation power. In mass decision-making, people feel involved in making decisions; correctly identifying problems and barriers, equipment and resources; and face different problems with more objectivity (18).
In summary, this research showed that healthcare decision-makers relate to contextual run-time factors, which change while the system is operating, and utilize a multifaceted array of elements, methods, skills and insights in situations of action. In difficult economic times, healthcare decision-making becomes increasingly complex and traditional evidence-based methods of decision-making are not widely utilized. Thus, a set of theoretically valid and rational principles may be offered by officially-prescribed models of decision-making or systematic evidence-based decision-making. It is suggested that in decision-making it is necessary to be aware of the lack of qualified employees, decreased team activities, decisions being based on one person’s opinions, and making decisions based on mental backgrounds. In addition, in the decision-making process, proposing the correct information for decision-making, the existence of strategic planning, and freedom are suggested as ways to improve the decision-making process in the health system.
LEAVE A COMMENT HERE: