Ethical Leadership and Employees' Perceptions About Raising Ethical Concerns to Managers in the Veterans Health Administration. 2019

Mary Beth Foglia, and Jennifer Hadary Cohen
a National Center for Ethics in Health Care, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine , Seattle , Washington , USA.

Background: The willingness of employees to proactively give voice to their concerns, including ethical concerns (ethics voice), is critical to improving organizational performance and integrity. In health care, speaking up is vital to ensuring a delivery system centered on patient safety and quality, including ethics quality. In this study, we explored whether ethical leadership practices contribute to employees' willingness to raise ethical concerns to those in the organization who have the authority to take corrective action. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of 2014 IntegratedEthics Staff Survey data administered to a random sample of 50% of VA health system staff. The data we used reflected responses from 42,412 employees who were associated with 141 administratively defined medical centers that encompass more than 1,400 sites of care delivery and VHA administrative program offices. The response rate to the survey was 29.4%. Results: Employees positioned higher in the organizational hierarchy were more comfortable raising ethical concerns than lower ranked employees. Ethical leadership practices, and especially those that created an expectation of trust, follow-through, and fair treatment, made it more likely that employees would raise ethical concerns with managers. Conclusion: Speaking up about ethical concerns is essential to the delivery of high-quality patient care and is enabled by managers who embody ethical leadership practices. Ethics programs can help create favorable conditions for raising ethical concerns by providing managers and supervisors with ethical leadership coaching, recognizing power differentials, and modeling more egalitarian communication practices. More research is needed to understand how employees conceptualize ethics voice and to assess the comparative effectiveness of different methods of encouraging speaking up about ethical concerns in health care organizations.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007857 Leadership The function of directing or controlling the actions or attitudes of an individual or group with more or less willing acquiescence of the followers. Influentials
D008297 Male Males
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D011795 Surveys and Questionnaires Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions. Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D004992 Ethics, Medical The principles of professional conduct concerning the rights and duties of the physician, relations with patients and fellow practitioners, as well as actions of the physician in patient care and interpersonal relations with patient families. Medical Ethics
D005260 Female Females
D006282 Health Personnel Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976) Health Care Professionals,Health Care Providers,Healthcare Providers,Healthcare Workers,Health Care Professional,Health Care Provider,Healthcare Provider,Healthcare Worker,Personnel, Health,Professional, Health Care,Provider, Health Care,Provider, Healthcare
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D001291 Attitude of Health Personnel Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc. Staff Attitude,Attitude, Staff,Attitudes, Staff,Health Personnel Attitude,Health Personnel Attitudes,Staff Attitudes

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