Social Responsibility: A New Paradigm of Hospital Governance?

Abstract

Changes in modern societies originate the perception that ethical behaviour is essential in organization’s practices especially in the way they deal with aspects such as human rights. These issues are usually under the umbrella of the concept of social responsibility. Recently the Report of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO on Social Responsibility and Health has addressed this concept of social responsibility in the context of health care delivery suggesting a new paradigm in hospital governance. The objective of this paper is to address the issue of corporate social responsibility in health care, namely in the hospital setting, emphasising the special governance arrangements of such complex organisations and to evaluate if new models of hospital management (entrepreneurism) will need robust mechanisms of corporate governance to fulfil its social responsiveness. The scope of this responsible behaviour requires hospitals to fulfil its social and market objectives, in accordance to the law and general ethical standards. Social responsibility includes aspects like abstention of harm to the environment or the protection of the interests of all the stakeholders enrolled in the deliverance of health care. In conclusion, adequate corporate governance and corporate strategy are the gold standard of social responsibility. In a competitive market hospital governance will be optimised if the organization culture is reframed to meet stakeholders’ demands for unequivocal assurances on ethical behaviour. Health care organizations should abide to this new governance approach that is to create organisation value through performance, conformance and responsibility.

Social responsibility of the hospitals in Isfahan city, Iran: Results from a cross-sectional survey

“…So, hospitals are meant to take the social responsibility. This necessity has been shown by previous studies (7,11). Furthermore, pressure from globalization and the competitive market make hospitals seek good hospital governance in which the social function of a hospital is redefined.…”

“…Furthermore, pressure from globalization and the competitive market make hospitals seek good hospital governance in which the social function of a hospital is redefined. Indeed, what is expected today from a hospital, is doing the right things and minimizing the potential damage to the stakeholders (11). The review of studies related to the social responsibility showed that there are few studies in the healthcare organizations, but more in other organizations.…”

Are Physicians Obliged to Lead Environmental Sustainability Efforts in Health Care Organizations?

“…Mount Sinai values the people, land and natural resources that are part of the institution and the surrounding community" [17]; and it integrates sustainability into its housekeeping, transportation, and other services [18]. Such a commitment to sustainability stems from an organization's obligation to protect patient, staff, and community health; their socioeconomic influence and health-oriented missions; and the community and environmental contexts in which they are embedded [19,20]. Organizations can fulfill the commitment to protect health through energy-efficient operations, facilitating healthy choices in nutrition (e.g., increasing access to fresh locally produced food), exercise (e.g., establishing walking paths to and around their facilities), and other means.…”

The emergence of the entrepreneurial hospital

“…This new governance approach creates organizational value through "performance, conformance and responsibility". 29 Decades of research on EO of firms, teams, and organizational leaders have suggested robust relationships between entrepreneurialism and firm performance. 6,12,39,43,44 There appears to be direct linkages, but also mediators of the relationship between EO and performance, as in the case of absorptive capacity as a moderator of the relationship between EO and firm performance.…”

“…The constructs capture the many roles of innovation in achieving greater social impact. 13,19,21,22,[29][30][31][32][33][34] Drawing on the organizational identity literature, a study of award-winning social ventures demonstrated that these social ventures: suggests that social ventures manifest a greater normative identity and an equivalent utilitarian identity. 27 Cultural competence, that is, the degree which organizations are predisposed to detect and fill gaps between market desires and market offerings, does not necessarily mean that social entrepreneurial endeavors are altruistically motivated.…”