Editorial.

Managerial skill, quality care, and employee satisfaction are crucial concerns of healthcare organizations today and are the interrelated themes of this issue of the Journal.

Kristina Guo introduces an assessment tool that is useful to current and developing managers. The instrument lists the talents and roles required of an effective manager, allowing its users to identify and assess their own or someone else's competency levels and areas for improvement. Lee Revere and Ken Black offer a concise review of the origins and use of the Six Sigma philosophy and present a detained example of how this approach can complement initiatives to reduce medication errors. The authors propose a framework for pairing Six Sigma with an organization's existing total quality management efforts. In industries outside healthcare, the concept of high-involvement work systems (HIWS) have proven useful in recruiting, retaining, and rewarding employees. Recognizing that studies of such an impact on the healthcare industry are lacking, Joel Harmon and his colleagues conducted one of the first large-scale applications of this work design to healthcare. Using 146 centers of the Veterans Health Administration, the authors tested and measured HIWS's potential for decreasing service costs and increasing employee satisfaction.

In times of rapid change, organizations must look inward to their missions, their managers, their services, and their clients. The articles in this issue provide useful aids for contemplating, measuring, and assessing the landscape of organizational needs. With this knowledge, these resources, and the passion for leadership as described by Deborah Lee-Eddie in the interview, healthcare managers can accelerate efforts to better themselves and their organization.