Moral Leadership in Medicine
Building Ethical Healthcare Organizations

Insightful analysis of how senior doctors manage the difficult moral problems they confront in leadership roles.

Suzanne Shale (Author)

9781107006157, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 December 2011

310 pages, 1 b/w illus.
24 x 16 x 1.6 cm, 0.65 kg

'Suzanne Shale has achieved a rare and impressive feat in combining theoretical rigour with empirical analysis in a way that make[s] her book uniquely valuable and insightful. This is a work that skilfully bridges the gap between the abstract and its application. It is an account that illustrates how moral questions and experiences are multi-layered and nuanced encompassing the systemic, organisational and personal. Dr Shale casts analytical light on areas of clinical management and leadership that have been overlooked within bioethics. This book is an original, scholarly and engaging work in which the author's thoughtful and wise perspective shines through on every page.' Professor Deborah Bowman, St George's, University of London

What are the moral challenges that confront doctors as they manage healthcare institutions? How do we build trust in medical organisations? How do we conceptualize moral action? Based on accounts given by senior doctors from organisations throughout the UK, this book discusses the issues medical leaders find most troubling and identifies the moral tensions they face. Moral Leadership in Medicine examines in detail how doctors protect patients' interests, implement morally controversial change, manage colleagues in difficulty and rebuild trust after serious medical harm. The book discusses how leaders develop moral narratives to make sense of these situations, how they behave while balancing conflicting moral goals and how they influence those around them to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. Based on empirical ethical analysis, this volume is essential reading for clinicians in leadership roles and students and academics in the fields of healthcare management, medical law and healthcare ethics.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Why medicine needs moral leaders
2. Creating an organizational narrative
3. Understanding normative expectations in medical moral leadership
Prologue to chapters four and five
4. Expressing fiduciary, bureaucratic and collegial propriety
5. Expressing inquisitorial and restorative propriety
Epilogue to chapters four and five
6. Understanding organizational moral narrative
7. Moral leadership for ethical organizations
Appendix 1. How the research was done
Appendix 2. Accountability for clinical performance: individuals and organisations
Appendix 3. A brief guide to commonly used ethical frameworks
Index.

Subject Areas: Medicolegal issues [MBQ], Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Ethical issues & debates [JFM]