Health services administrator role delineation methodology: an institutional long-term care example

Health services administrators (HSA) are the cynosure of much current research because of their pivotal positions vis-a-vis quality of care and cost-effective policies. Role delineation methods used to date are too simple and/or too subjective to reflect the actual complexities of these roles. Dimensional analysis, as used to delineate complex organizational processes, more succinctly and accurately reflects these complexities and is more objective. The inherent weakness of dimensional analysis in devising the initial list of tasks can be counteracted by the use of facet analysis. A set of LTC administrator tasks from a national study is dimensionally analyzed to produce a role delineation and the subroles are validated through criterion analyses and amplified through reference to the literature. A similar strategy could usefully and readily be applied to extant data sets for other HSAs.