Violations of Service Fairness and Legal Ramifications: The Case of the Managed Care Industry

Adapted from Chan's (2000) model depicting success of litigation, this paper argues that with the application of various legislation, health maintenance organizations' (HMOs') violations of service fairness to each group: enrollees, physicians, and hospitals give rise to each group's lawsuits against the HMOs. Various authors (Bowen et al., 1999; Seiders and Berry, 1998) indicate that justice concepts such as distributive, procedural, and interactional justice can be applied to the area of service fairness. The violation of these underlying justice principles with HMOs' service unfairness to enrollees, physicians, and hospitals is examined. A general synopsis of the ethical issues in the managed care industry is provided. The various lawsuits launched by each group: enrollees, physicians, and hospitals together with the key statutes used are discussed. This paper also highlights the provisions and ramifications of the 11 April 2000 landmark agreement that Aetna made with Texas Attorney General John Cornyn to settle the 1998 lawsuit brought against the company. Lastly, the current ethical issues in the managed care industry are further discussed. The value of this paper can be adapted to the study of organizations' service fairness violations in other industries or in the educational, governmental, and not-for-profit sectors both nationally and internationally.     

论知识型组织员工的人性假设及其激励

基于知识型组织员工人力资源的独有特征，提出一种新的人性假设——“价值人”假设，即知识型组织中员工是工具价值与自我价值二维存在的统一体。在“价值人”假设条件下，知识型组织员工管理模式应从传统的“命令-控制”型向“引导-激励”型转变，运用激励的制度安排来激发员工的工作热情。     

Policy Issues Raised by For-Profit Spinoffs from Professional Associations: An Evaluation of a Recent AICPA Initiative

This paper provides an evaluation of the spinoff of a for-profit company from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), a nonprofit professional association. The evaluation is based on a review of the literature on public policy issues surrounding organizational conversions from nonprofit to for-profit legal status. Many criticisms of this for-profit spinoff were voiced by professional leaders and accounting regulators, and we demonstrate that these criticisms are grounded in widely recognized policy principles relating to nonprofit conversions. The public policy issues raised by this study have implications for the governance of professional associations in all disciplines.     

Individual rights and organizational theory

Rights are very important concepts in everyday life. And they are especially important to participants in organizations. Yet, our theories of organization and management have largely ignored rights — stressing, instead, other concepts, such as goals, roles, etc. This article describes the historical significance of rights and their relevance in understanding social behavior. The advantages of a right-based organizational theory (versus traditional goal-based theories) are discussed.This article draws on the author's forthcoming book,A Social-Contract Theory of Organizations (University of Notre Dame Press, 1988).     

Law without justice: The dilemmas of formalization and fairness in the legalistic organization

There is growing evidence of a litigation mentality rampant in organizations, which has created a legalistic mindset in many managers. Increasingly, managerial decisions are becoming dominated by a concern for what is legally defensible at the expense of broader social considerations such as justice and fairness. The papers in this special issue explore how this legalistic mindset has created new organizational and social dilemmas, and situations of law whithout justice.     

Behind closed doors: Sex bias at professional and managerial levels

U.S. companies have made important strides in combating sex discrimination in the workplace over the last two decades, but more subtle forms of sex bias still exist, often in decisions and behaviors that occur behind closed doors. This paper focuses on sex bias at professional and managerial levels. It explores sources of sex bias in the informal culture, selection and recruitment, task assignment, performance appraisal, promotion, and salary allocation, and then suggests action steps to help reduce sex bias in each of these areas.     

政府购买社会组织公共服务的SWOT分析：理论表达与策略选择

文章首先阐述政府购买公共服务的基础性概念,并据此引申出政府公共服务功能社会化趋势的理论表达;针对政府公共服务社会化模式展开SWOT分析;从政府购买社会组织公共服务的理念定位,为非政府组织参与政府采购公共服务平台运作提供可行策略,并对政府公共服务功能的社会化绩效水平制定相应的评价指标体系,以提升政府在做出购买社会组织公共服务策略时的决心和效率。     

不同动态理论视角下产业组织空间群聚机制的解释

产业组织群聚是产业组织演化的一个宏观空间特征,是一个典型的具有群聚性的网络动态过程。建立在不同的理论流派基础上对此作出了不同侧面的解释。但基于复杂系统网络演化理论基础上的解释尚很少。本文首先对产业组织群聚的不同经济流派做出比较,在此基础上,探讨网络演化的复杂性和无标度性。论证具有无标度特性的网络所内含的群聚性(Clustering)可以用来解释产业组织群聚特征,从而可扩展已有的产业组织群聚理论解释。     

非营利组织推动企业履行社会责任的作用机制研究

非营利组织与企业在社会责任建设领域存在一定的契合性,由于其战略目标和宗旨存在一致性和互补性,所以两者可以达成合作的目标。非营利组织可以成为企业履行社会责任的代理、监督、标准制定、环境创造等机构,其推动企业履行社会责任的作用机制呈现出一种金字塔式的结构特点。     

香港社会中介组织的经验与启示

近年来,香港各级各类中介组织在促进经济社会事业发展中发挥着越来越重要的作用,借鉴香港社会中介组织发展的有益经验,探求国内社会中介组织发展的特色之路尤为关键。