THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP AND HIGH PERFORMANCE (HRM) SYSTEMS ON Thesis

THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP AND HIGH PERFORMANCE (HRM) SYSTEMS ON PATIENT SAFETY MEDIATING BY ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE IN SAUDI HOSPITALS - Thesis Example lted in hospitals beginning to provide integrated health care services which was qualitatively made even better through technological adaptations (Lighter and Fair, 2004, p.7). As the hospitals grew in size, capital and functions, a considerable work force began to get aligned with it resulting in a scope and need for applying management and human resource concepts and frameworks into them (Hernandez, 2009, p.4). This was also a result of health service as a sector being highly â€Å"labor intensive† (Hernandez, 2009, p.4). It is this evolving work environment in health care sector that is transforming all its outcomes including patient safety (Ngo, Foley and Loi, 2009, p.668). This evolving work environment is what constitutes organizational climate of a health service organization and it is â€Å"the frame of reference through which individuals (workers) make sense of organizational life† in a health care facility (Ngo, Foley and Loi, 2009, p.668). Hence, organizational climate can be viewed as one of the most important mediating element in patient safety (Walston, Al-Omar and Al-Mutari, 2008, p.35). This mediation happens through human resource management. Though there can be many aspects to human resource management that can lead to patient safety, this study envisages focusing on two specific elements of it, namely, leadership and high performance work systems (HPWS). The research done so far in this area have mostly generated data on how leadership and HPWS help build an organizational climate suitable for patient safety (Richardson and Storr, 2010; Stewart and Usher, 2010; Combs et al., 2007). Yet, these studies have also pointed to the lack of sufficient investigation being made into the whole process that starts with leadership and work force, evolves through organizational climate and arrives at desirable level of patient safety. This literature review envisages weighing the opposing arguments on the role of high performance work systems and leadership in