Rural hospital administrators and strategic management activities

This study examines the association of characteristics of rural hospital administrators and the adoption of seven strategic activities in a national sample of 797 U.S. rural hospitals during the period 1983-1988. Based on the premise that managerial activities can affect organizational change, we test five hypotheses relating head administrator characteristics to strategic adaptation, controlling for environment-market and hospital-related variables. Bivariate analysis of the strategic adoption showed a positive association with administrative turnover and a negative association with head administrator age. Multivariate logistic regression showed that only high levels of turnover were associated with strategic activities, net of control variables. The implications of these findings and the lack of predictive power of other rural hospital administrator characteristics--especially affiliation with the American College of Healthcare Executives--are discussed within the context of a "strategic management policy" for rural hospitals.