Adapting to change in healthcare: aligning strategic intent and operational capacity

The concept of a stakeholder is commonplace in a business context. Participative- democratic communication refers to those organization-wide principles and practices that "represent" many relevant stakeholders in the decision making of work-related activities. One case in point is as follows: In May 2000, the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System board of directors forced its CEO to resign, ending his 6-year tenure and the heated controversy of the previous 2 months. The former CEO focused primarily on strategic growth to the detriment of operations. Through participative-democratic practices, the interim CEO mended the damaged relations between the hospital administration, the community, and employee stakeholders in surfacing conflict to bolster operational efficiency. The current CEO attended to building stakeholder relationships and trust as a way to wed strategic growth and the organization's capacity to maintain it. Top executive managers and directly involved community political leaders helped in developing the participative-democratic communication principles set forth in this article. These core principles are (a) creating the space for new communicative interaction, (b) safeguarding a credible and open process, and (c) reclaiming suppressed views.