Management Education for Health Services

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of the recent emergence in the United States of three major factors for management education in health services. The factors are: new organizational forms for delivery of services, increased emphasis on public accountability, and the proliferation of agencies intended to monitor and coordinate health services providers. Several questions are considered, including the degree to which training for various managerial careers within health services should be differentiated; the degree to which professional education should occur in the academic setting as distinct from the work setting; and, most importantly, the appropriate content of graduate education. It is argued that formal education for health services management should place substantial emphasis on the development of a student's analytic skills, with particular reference to quantitative methods. While these technical skills are not likely to become the dominant ingredient of successful and effective management, they do provide the manager with the ability to identify courses of action which will benefit the organization, and strengthen his hand in dealing with groups that are necessarily in conflict with its goals. It is stressed that training in this area should be oriented toward the needs of the prospective manager rather than the quantitative methods specialist.