Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the value of a developmental learning view on implementation of quality management (QM) concepts. QM concepts are common in various organizations; some implement them smoothly, others struggle and sometimes even abandon the initiatives. What is...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and test a construct of perceived justice from an airline and hospital industry perspective. Furthermore, the similarities and differences of perceived justice in negative service encounters within the airline and hospital setting, and the...

Purpose – The use of the customer concept and ways of interacting with customers in support functions are relatively new areas of interest for public organizations. The purpose of this study is to describe the development toward a stronger customer orientation in a support function in a...

This paper reports the results of a telephone survey to elicit preferences for public or private health insurance. The survey adopted a method described by Hudson and Jones that allows respondents to distinguish between self‐interest and altruistic motivations. A random sample of 403 people...

This paper examines some of the key features of social health insurance systems by drawing on experiences in Germany, Switzerland, France and The Netherlands. These countries have all implemented a variety of reforms, including some competition between health insurers in order to meet some of...

Purpose – The study aims to examine the socio‐economic determinants of maternal health services utilization in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – Probit and ordered probit models are employed in this study. Findings – The results generally indicate that most women in Ghana undertake...

Purpose – This paper uses a unique nationwide survey data derived from the 2003 Utilisation of Health Services Survey (UHSS) in Iran ( n =16,935) to analyse inequities of health care utilisation. Design/methodology/approach – Concentration indices are used to measure socioeconomic inequality...

Norman Daniels has presented a concept of health care need which he proposes as the basis for the distribution of health care resources, plausibly to define and provide a philosophical justification for a decent minimum of health care. Daniels′ construction is reconsidered and criticisms both...

The health care crisis in the United States has roots that reach into the nineteenth century. An examination of the cultural, social, and economic roots should warn against piecemeal and short‐range measures to correct a fragmented system which, despite all its achievements, is draining the...