Strategic leadership in hospital nonprofit organizations. explain Term Paper

Strategic leadership in hospital nonprofit organizations. explain problems with leadership, mission, budgetting and financial ma - Term Paper Example These include governance, volunteer programs, fundraising and granting, non-profit budgeting and accounting and public policy skills. Problems with leadership, mission, budgeting and financial management in hospital non-profit organizations Budgeting and financial management According to Goodman and Pennings (1997), non-profit organisations require highly customised forms of budgeting. The problem is that these budgeting skills are not taught in general management learning institutions. Non-profit hospitals have to fix their long list of needs within the limited pool of resources available in an attempt to achieve its objectives and meet the needs of the society. This is because the finances received by non-profit hospitals in most cases are low below what they need for effective service delivery. This attempt to satisfy everything for the sake of everyone usually results to ineffectiveness in non-profit hospitals (Bernd et al, 2004). Non-profit hospitals can operate as donor-faced, community-faced or agency-faced. Those that are donor-faced or agency-faced have to be very ken not to annoy their financiers so as to ensure their continuity. This means that the hospital organisation have a hard time in ensuring that no-patients overstay in the hospital so as to keep their financial expenses within the expected limits. Any such occurrences usually brings a lot of losses to the hospital unlike a profit making hospital in which patients pay for their medical and general expenses (Bernd et al, 2004). A budget should reflect the expected expenditure verses expected income as well as act as an executive control tool. However, in non-profit organisations, budgets are usually drawn just for formality purposes. Non-profit hospitals use non-scientific finance budgeting methods. These methods lack scientific calculation and analysis. Such methods do not take into account changes expected in the hospital environment. As a result of this, such budgets are not in a position to exert the required financial control in the hospital (Forbes, 1998). Non-profit hospitals are usually exempted from taxes. This has a disadvantage in that they are not allowed to access equity markets. This becomes a big challenge when the hospital needs capital to fund its projects because it blocks their ability to get capital from multiple channels. This means that the management has to greatly reduce expenses in other areas so as to get capital to fund the new project. Consequently, this impacts on the quality of services offered. Narrowed financial channels usually present a rick of financial crisis in non-profit hospitals. Alternatively, the hospital can opt to wait for donor funding for the project yet such funds could not be forthcoming in the near time (Bernd et al, 2004). Non-profit hospitals lack organisation and highly skilled personnel for its financial management. These cause them to lack the concepts and experiences of advanced enterprise financial control. At the sa me time, some non-profit hospitals lack clearly defined financial objectives in their management. These hospitals have to ensure that their mission to offer social benefits does not overtake the reality that a hospital is a market economy. Non-profit hospitals usually encounter a problem of investment in the course of their financial management. Many at times, there is blindness in investing the capital acquired. For example,