Organizational ethics in health care: proactively caring employees

This chapter focuses on ethical issues in healthcare organizations, contending that a neglected question to date pertains the comprehension of the possible impact of employees' perceived well-being on the ethical flavor of such organizations. Acknowledging that literature provides a number of conceptions of "ethics", both in general and with reference to healthcare, this chapter moves from the idea put forth by Austin (2007). Building on Austin's view, the call is made for a shift in thinking about ethics in healthcare, primarily focusing on employee well-being, since to date the interplay between employee welfare and ethics in the healthcare field has still under-investigated.