Medical practice and physician executives face the uncertain future. Strategic stakeholder management III

This article, third in a series addressing stakeholder management, presents preliminary findings of Round Two data from the "Facing the Uncertain Future" study. One purpose of this study is to determine how experts define key stakeholders of medical group practices now and how these stakeholders might change by the year 2000. This analysis highlights a comparison of two expert panels: medical practice executives (MPEs) and physician executives (PEs). The purpose was to ascertain whether or not MPE and PE perspectives for the present and predictions for the future differed on a series of key issues. The key issues discussed are: organizational goals, who will be responsible for managing the organization towards these goals, assessment of the external environment and identification of key stakeholders. MPEs and PEs, with the exception of the physician manager and several current organizational goals, view the present similarly and also showed convergence in their predictions for 2000. Despite different training and career experiences, our analysis found that MPEs and PEs view the present and future in surprisingly similar ways. As a result, MPEs and PEs are encouraged to be less preoccupied with perceived differences in perspective and, instead, focus their energies on developing clear strategies and specific tactics to strengthen their organization's position in this turbulent environment.