The work of effective CEOs in four large health organizations

This paper examines CEO effectiveness in four large health care organizations by asking CEOs for their conceptualizations of CEO effectiveness in their organization; by asking the close associates of CEOs for their perceptions of CEO accomplishments, methods, and agendas; and by observing and speculating on the episodes of work with which CEOs are involved. It is suggested that CEO effectiveness can be associated with the type of episodes that CEOs choose to manage or participate in and the results achieved per episode are relative to costs in CEO time and organizational resources. There is insufficient data in this study to justify these conclusions but enough data to warrant further specification and testing of hypotheses in this area. Differences are observed in the episodes of work that the CEOs do and it is believed that these differences relate to varying sets of organizational circumstances.