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Most of the research on fostering ethical climates by making ethical decision choices in organisations has taken place in the last 20 years. Research has moved from specific studies evaluating either individual or situational variables as factors in ethical decision behaviour to more complex models that encompass the interaction of individual and situational factors. This study revisits the influence of the individual variable of gender on ethical decision making. Using a laboratory format and decision exercises that attempted to create realistic business conflict situations through decision scenarios, the influence of demographic factors, specifically gender, and the moral intensity of the conflict situation on ethical decision making are examined in the light of workplace values.

Although gainsharing is an old organizational development intervention, the literature has not sought to provide an integrative framework for its study. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of its conceptual perspectives, organizational theory, and design to meet the need of such future research.

As the health‐care industry undergoes major change, a method of “accounting for quality” has become a key factor in health services delivery and fiscal accountability. This article examines several aspects of health care that inhibit the development of common methods of defining and accounting for quality. Key issues and characteristics of the health‐care market are addressed and the article provides a synthesis of these obstacles to the process of deriving common measures and standards of quality that may be utilized by the health‐care industry for financial decisions.

A primary reason for the increase in uninsured Americans is due to the rising costs of health care that has caused a decline of employment‐based coverage for individuals working for small firms. According to the 1997 US Census Bureau figures, 43 percent of uninsured worked full‐time, and eight out of ten of the uninsured or their dependents were full‐time workers. While significant improvements at the state‐level have occurred to address the unmet health insurance needs of children, less emphasis has been placed on ways to improve access and utilization of health services for uninsured adults. This paper revisits where the health care debate has been over the last decade, system stresses currently being felt by providers in caring for the uninsured population, and the adequacy of the care which they receive. In addition, several incremental strategies for extending Medicaid coverage for children and their families, costs and financing projections, and implications for providers are examined.

In all industries, competition among businesses has long been encouraged as a mechanism to increase value for patients. In other words, competition ensures the provision of better products and services to satisfy the needs of customers This paper aims to develop a model that can be used to empirically investigate a number of complex issues and relationships associated with competition in the health care industry.

A literature review was conducted. A total of 50 items of literature related to the subject were reviewed.. Various perspectives of competition, the nature of service quality, health system costs, and patient satisfaction in health care are examined

A model of the relationship among these variables is developed. The model depicts patient satisfaction as an outcome measure directly dependent on competition. Quality of care and health care systems costs, while also directly dependent on the strategic mission and goals, are considered as determinants of customer satisfaction as well. The model is discussed in the light of propositions for empirical research.

Empirical studies based on the model proposed in this paper should help identify areas with significant impact on patient satisfaction while maintaining high quality of service at lower costs in a competitive environment.

The authors develop a research model which included propositions to examine the complex issues of competition in the health care industry.

African-Americans historically report greater exposure to discrimination and also experience unfavorable outcomes associated with physical health, poverty concentration, residential segregation, and poorer education. The effects of discrimination are particularly harmful on mental health as discriminatory experiences contribute significantly to diminished mental health status and psychological distress. African-Americans pursuing graduate education may experience additional stressors, increasing the risk for poorer mental health. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association of psychological health and discrimination experiences among black and white graduate students at a southeastern university.

Participants were 505 graduate students at a predominantly white southeastern institution. Researchers collected data via self-administered online and paper questionnaires during the spring 2010 semester. Graduate students were asked questions pertaining to individual demographics, discrimination, and psychosocial concerns.

Approximately 15 percent of the graduate students reported psychological distress. Additionally, black graduate students reported significantly higher levels of day-to-day and lifetime discrimination when compared to white graduate students. In addition to the proportions of psychological distress differing by race, African-American graduate students reported better psychological well-being when exposed to both day-to-day and lifetime discrimination than whites with similar exposure.

Resilience factors and coping strategies should be examined further among African-American graduate students for greater understanding. Moreover, it is important to develop applications to improve mental health outcomes for all graduate students.

This is one of the few studies to focus on the mental health and discrimination experiences among a graduate student population. The sample is drawn from the southeastern USA where there are long vestiges of discrimination and a sizable sampling of African-Americans who live in the USA.